Children of the Failed Dimensions
by Memiors of a Red Shade
Summary: Four young adults are sent into the world on a pilgrimage by their fathers, the Four Eco Sages, to become ready for apprenticeship. Only, they know nothing of the real world. They don't even know the nature of their own existence. Will they be ready?
1. Seeing Red

**This is the beginning of my time on here, and I thought I'd start it off with this budding story. There is a heck of a lot more planned to it, so hopefully you'll stick around for a bit more. Please don't be daunted by my newbie status; I promise that my writing quality will (hopefully) be up to par. Of course, comments are always welcomed. Anyway, enough about me, more disclaimers!  
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and all its characters belongs to Naughty Dog, and I am in no way affiliated to Naughty Dog, just a fan proclaiming their wonderful games to be worth writing about. However, the character Zorna is completely my own work.**

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**The five senses.

Sound. The waves gently wash up on the beach. The cry of a native water bird. The occasional soft bellowing of a yakow. The rhythmic turning of the windmill.

Sight. The bright blue sky, patterned with fluffy white clouds. Bright green grass abound. Yellow warm beaches. Sturdy houses with thatched straw rooves.

Scent. Fresh caught fish. The salty sea breeze. The sweet fresh grass. A delicious pie being baked in the small town below.

Taste. The cleanest air in the entire world.

Touch. Clean, soft, undirtied clothes. Bouncy, ever so slightly dew covered grass. Warm sun on skin.

_Precursors, this was paradise. Freaking paradise. No unbearable grinding, no foul smells, no hot, slimy grime. I should move here. Yeah, that's a good idea. Get a job in the village, nothing too flashy, just enough to get by. I'm sure in a few years time the value of these houses will skyrocket. Plenty to retire on. Yeah…I'll go do that. When I get up, I'll go do that. Just a couple more minutes resting. There's no rush._

"Come on, it's time to get up."

_Didn't I just say there was no rush?_

"There's so much to prepare for, and so little time to do it all in!"

_Psh, like what? Haven't you seen this place? Time moves so slowly around here, I bet we're a year behind everyone else._

"Zorna, are you dreaming again? Come on, wake up!"

_Wake up? Oh precursors, oh damn it, why? Why-why-why-why-why? Why can't it be real just this once? It's too real not to be. I don't believe you. I'm not going to wake up. Nope. Never. He's shaking me. No. No no. Nonononononono-_

"There we are, sleepy head. You had me worried. Had you gotten ill, I don't know what I would do!" a deep, grainy voice fussed from over me. Here we go.

"You would have dealt with it, heat lamp. Now, can you please move your ever so generous girth so I can actually get up?" I grumbled, beginning to sit up.

**HISS!**

Aha, it worked.

As the rounded Red Sage shuffled over to less preoccupied space in his small hut, I did my own shuffling downwards in my bed and sat up, careful not to once again get my head on the piping hot pipe (oh ho ho ho, my way with words). Slowly, I untied the cold, now only slightly damp cloth from around my forehead, and looked at the dark burn mark which could have very well been on my brain. Old warm lump had purposely put that pipe over my pillow, claiming that the heatwaves emitted from it encourage positive dreams during sleep. To a degree, it had worked. However, I now needed to wear a wet scarf around my forehead to make sure each sleep was not my last. And it's not easy to get water around here!

Getting out of bed completely, I rubbed my eyes and took a deep breath in. The smell of sulphur quickly over powered my sensitive nose, causing me to choke and cough, grasping at my throat. As I stumbled over to my small set of drawers to pull out my second cleanest red tunic, the Red Sage mused, "Its funny how you've lived here all your life, but still you gag every morning, without fail. One would think that you'd be used to it by now, or even find it comforting."

"Give me ten more years, Reddles, and I'll see what I can do," came my usual retort, as I laid out the tunic on top of the drawers and pulled off my woollen nightgown. I'd lived with the old coot long enough that I didn't care if he saw me naked, and he had learnt to turn around when I made my way over to this little corner of clothes anyway.

After slipping on some underwear and bra from the bottom drawer, I pulled on my tunic and pulled my long, thick, bright blonde hair through the neck hole. Snapping the large collar up so it shielded my neck, I looked in the mirror situated at eye level above the drawer. Not-So-Little-Red-Riding-Hood had made it for me for my tenth birthday when he had caught me peering into his bronze apron, trying to figure what I looked like.

I guess I was fairly okay to look at. Clear skin, despite my grimy surroundings. Large, hazelish eyes, both exactly where they were supposed to be. A straight nose, sitting inconspicuously in the middle of my face. Well sized ruby coloured lips sitting under that. But a face was a face, and didn't matter much in scheme of things. I usually chose to hide some of it with two shoulder reaching bangs. And soon those bangs, along with the roots of my hair would change colour. Soon.

I pulled on some loose fitting pants and sat down to start buckling up every piece of clothing to make them air tight. Whilst one would think living in the Volcanic Crater you would want air circulation through your clothes, if one hot rock managed to fly up your top, for example, fun times would definitely NOT occur. First pulling on some steel capped boots so I could do up my pants, I enquired as to what fun I'd be up to today. "Well, I want to fix our little 'gondola' which can transport people up to the snowy peaks above our little abode," the Red Sage began to explain, only to be cut off by myself as I tightened the buckles at the bottom of each legging. "Why would you want to fix that old thing? From what you've always said, 'horrible dangers' lurk up there. Precursors…you don't want me to go up there, do you?"

"Well, not really. I just wanted to get it up and running for the visitors I'll get through here in a few weeks time. There's probably plenty of old Precursor artefacts that they may want to try and find for their own uses." Dear ol' Red-in-the-Face, always thinking of others. He was too nice, but that's just the way I liked him.

What he said about visitors was also quite true. People, around my age, would be passing through Volcanic Crater on their way to the Citadel. A journey around our world, visiting the other Sage's huts and large Precursor buildings to both observe and learn what we could from them. A journey which would apparently 'define ourselves in the outer world, filled with tests and trials, which would not only push us physically, but mentally as well. It would make us challenge our morals, and in the end, make us into stronger people, ready for the hard tasks that lay further on in the future'. At least that's what my Big Man in Red, said. Honestly, I just think they wanted us out of their hair so they could congregate at the Citadel to see who would apprentice under whom! It couldn't be helped, though. It had to be done. All the sages were getting old. And old in their opinion is around the age of some of the 'younger' rocks, which to any normal minded person, such as myself, is insanely, ancient, falling apart old.

On another note, I felt sorry for the guy stuck with the crazy Yellow Sage. He'd have to do a full lap of the whole place. I'd probably be making most of my adventure with him, most to my utter joy, since he only lived down the Lava Tube. Well, if he even made through there, and didn't feel like going up to Snowy Mountain to see if he could find any Precursor Orbs, or even a Power Cell or two. Again, I pondered why anyone would want to go up there, just for those sorts of things. It was purely optional, and dangerous. Still, I wasn't about to argue the point any further with Red, and instead asked a more important question, which I already had a bad feeling about what the answer was going to be.

"Okay, so what has that got to do with me?" I asked, rechecking the straps on my sleeves before sliding on two metal arm guards. _Please don't need power cells,_ I thought. _Please._

"According to some of my old books, I'll need a few more power cells than what I already own. I'd really appreciate it if you went into the Spider Cave and tried to find some for me. There must be plenty of them in there, considering there was a whole robot!"

Of course, he wasn't commanding me to go down there. He was simply asking if I wouldn't mind doing him the favour. I could deny. I wanted to deny. I hated spiders. I hated looking for Precursor junk. But I always agreed to do it. He knew I'd always agree to do it. Was it because he was my beloved mentor?

Probably.

Was it because I was actually a big softie at heart?

Most definitely.

I got up and shook out my now armoured legs, and gave my portly father a nod. "I'll be back soon, hopefully. If I'm not back by dinner, worry," I said nonchalantly, leaning in slightly towards him so he could give me the customary kiss on the head.

"I'm worrying already, Zorna. If you're not back by lunch I'm coming looking for you!" he called out after me as I yanked my pair of goggles off the hook by the door and pulled them on around my head.

As I stepped outside, the heat from the lava below hit me like one would hit a punching bag. Tying a scarf I conveniently found in my shirt pocket (dear old Red-Red) around my mouth, I made my way across the eastern rickety old bridge.

My name is Zorna, daughter of the Red Sage, and this is my hell.


	2. Mellow Yellow

**Here I am once more, in your internet, postin' stories. There will be two more post like this, and then we will get into the meat of it. I hope you'll remain patient. Of course, the rights to Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy does not belong to be, and neither do it's characters. Only the out of game characters such as Zorna and Egeus are mine. I am in no way affiliated to Naughty Dog, the legal owner of Jak and Daxter.**

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Weather.

It was an interesting thing back then. Four particular types of weather especially interested me.

When the suns were high in the sky, the way the warmth would rest on the skin…it was like the atmosphere was embracing you. Making you feel comfortable, welcoming you to the world.

Clouds would sometimes cover the suns, and the warmth would leave, to be replaced by the yells of thunder. The world had gotten angry, and it would throw around its power, punching the earth with great crackling fists.

If those clouds were heavy, eventually they couldn't hold any more, and the cold tears would pelt the ground, drenching anyone who happened to be foolish enough to be outside during nature's sadness through to the skin, in turn making them feel miserable.

But soon those drops would become frozen, no longer pelting angrily, but simply fall gently, as fragile white crystals. The whole land would be covered in a huge blanket of cold whiteness, as if the world was blanking out the world which had wronged it so many times.

Then the suns would shine once more when the world felt better, and the snow would melt into a refreshing drink for the earth, as if it were forgiving it for all its wrongs. The cycle kept going through in no particular order. It was quite extraordinary, in my opinion.

Of course, I've never been outside in my life.

All I ever heard about the world outside was stories from my father and lessons from Gol, his sister Maia occasionally chiming in with other details as well.

Gol often held lessons, despite there only being one student in his class. Of course, that was just me. But still, he said that way he could personalize the lessons, and could go at my own pace, and explain things in a way that I could understand. He was all for learning about new things, and often said he liked the look that would appear on another's face when he had successfully taught them something. The feeling would be even better when he saw the person continuing on with that learning, and discover new things about their topic of interest themselves.

That's probably why he studied dark eco.

His sister, his twin, I think, was quite the interesting lady herself. She was the first woman I ever saw, and looked quite different from the rest of us. She didn't have our broad shoulders, and looked much more fragile with her curves and thin frame. Honestly, I found her to be a work of art, and harboured a secret little crush on her. It wasn't a deep enough love to tell her, though. Maia was also quite curious about the world herself, and would often complain about the 'lack of transport' from place to place. That's probably why I got into tinkering with Zoomers.

She also adored her brother and would join in with my lessons, but not as a student. She would be there to give extra little facts which Gol deemed silly. She also recorded down the lessons, which she explained could be one day be turned into 'text books', that would inform their readers and question them about what they've read, with out having to have an actual person to explain it all. She was an intelligent woman, and I think she just needed things to do. All the better for her when she could do these things her brother.

That's probably why she studied dark eco.

I think I was the closest person to those two for awhile. The other sages never came down to visit, and for some reason my own father, the Yellow Sage, never really spoke to them either. He put up with them, really, having his lab so close to their citadel. I think he also thought he was more entitled to have the place inside than what they were. I guess it would have been a lot easier for him to do more studies on yellow eco that way, with all that open space.

The Yellow Sage wasn't all that mean, though. Or greedy. (Well, with food he could be. His fair size proof of this.) He could be really fun. He would constantly be yattering on about something as I cleaned the lab up after him, recounting a story about what had happened at the bog, or frying some sort of weird beast with his yellow eco. Sometimes he even let me explore some of the Lava Tube, as long as I stayed on the paths he provided me with. Only on foot, of course. I needed my Zoomer in top condition for when I made my journey. I guess all that walking made me fitter, and being so close to the lava, more durable.

That's all my days consisted of, really. Lessons from Gol and Maia, trips down the Lava Tube, and cleaning up after the Yellow Sage. I never really found my life all that interesting. Zorna, from up the Tube seemed to always have something interesting to talk about, as well as the other two from the outside world, but I never heard from them.

I guess you might be wondering how I even know about the others. Well, the warp gates could be used for teleportation between places. How ever, some how, sitting at the right angle in front of it allowed your voice to travel through, sort of like a walkie talkie. Gol explained it to me in much more detail, but it was so complicated it made my head spin. Of course, I could only turn on the gate when the Yellow Sage was sleeping. For some reason, none of the Sages liked them on. Something about privacy, I guess. Why Zorna even thought to turn hers on at the same time as I tried mine was a mystery, but that's how we learnt of each other. I didn't really know if she liked me all that much, but she agreed to wait for me to come up the Lava Tube before she'd go anywhere. That was reassuring, I think. I never really liked being alone.

I wasn't very headstrong, or confident. I wasn't really the sharpest tool in the shed either, but Gol tried his best. I was pretty flat, actually. I never out did myself, or tried to argue with any body on anything. I just took what came, and accepted stuff.

That's probably why the Yellow Sage started upping my training sessions up the Lava Tube closer to the time of my journey, and even called Gol over more often for more lessons. He was worried I wouldn't make it. He was worried I didn't have the spark to make it. I think he would have loved to have a more boisterous child, who could make their own way in the world, but he tried his best with me. His best was good enough for me. Whilst I was slow, and had a habit of rambling about stuff that wasn't really to the point, he never let me down.

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It was two days before I would make my journey that Gol and Maia would make their last appearance. I was fiddling with the engine of my Zoomer, goggles down over my eyes, when I could hear the pair's footsteps approaching. I stood up slowly and brushed off my dark coloured overalls, nodding to them in a friendly way. Gol was the first to start speaking, with a noticeable rasp making him sound poorly. That croak had been becoming more and more apparent over the weeks.

"Greetings, Egeus. Tinkering with your contraption, I see." He had never really liked man made machines like this. He preferred the sleek Precursor devices, which were deadly silent, but could be unreliable. That was his main attraction to them, I think. Figuring them out to make them reliable.

"Doing one last check over before your big day? I could have sworn you've looked over that piece at least one hundred times!" Maia exclaimed, standing shoulder to shoulder with Gol, hand on hip. Her voice had also changed. It used to be a lot gentler.

"No, I'll probably do one last check the night before. Can't be too careful…it wouldn't be good if it wouldn't start on the big day, I guess," I replied with a sheepish laugh, scratching the back of my wild black hair. Despite my more than average height, those two could always make me feel like a kid again.

Gol took a breath in as if he were about to speak, but then turned to the side to have a fit of coughing. You could hear the phlegm in his lungs rattling. It made me cringe, but setting the scared thoughts away, I pulled my goggles up to my forehead and approached, only to be waved away by Maia. "Don't come near!"

I soon saw why.

With one last violent cough, Gol's body seemed to contract into itself, shaking fitfully, before he threw his limbs out, dark sparks radiating from his body. The dizzying stench of dark eco filled the air. Whilst I was aware of their studies of dark eco, I hadn't thought they'd go so far and try and absorb it, like you would green eco when you were hurt. It was probably what was making him so sick.

I think they both saw my expression of shock and of disgust. The things they were trying were just never heard of. Dark eco was dangerous stuff, especially then, since no one knew anything about it.

This all lasted just a few moments, though. Soon Gol was back into a normal stance, albeit now leaning on Maia for support and panting heavily. "We…we just wanted to wish you well personally. As you may have been informed by your master, the Yellow Sage, our lessons together have been terminated. Whilst there was a lot more I wish I could have taught you, it seems as if time has finally caught up with us," Gol wheezed, shortly followed by a couple of weak coughs into his glove.

"Now that you're leaving, we will have more time to study dark eco closer than before, and make further advances," Maia said, short and sharp, seemingly wanting to get to the point quickly. It dawned on me then that their roles had suddenly reversed. Maia was the one with the confident smirk, and getting straight to the point, where as Gol was being more aloof, his mind wandering. It must have been the affect of dark eco. "This is the last time you will see us for a long time," she continued, eyes looking directly into mine, unwavering. "If all continues to plan, however, this will be our last meeting. We have large plans for the future, taking us to places we could only ever dream of before!" I think I saw a flash of madness in those once warm eyes for a moment. Cold madness. Gol gave Maia a disdainful look, as if she had said something wrong. "Don't be disheartened by this, young one. You yourself are going on a long journey, and will meet with your own destiny. Life is fraught with meetings and partings, 'hellos' and 'goodbyes', and soon this will just be a distant memory."

I looked down for a second, scuffing my booted toe at the floor. For the first time in my life, I felt a large lump rise in my throat. For a moment I wondered if it was my heart escaping my body, but the sudden ache in my chest proved otherwise.

It was my first time experiencing sadness. I had lived such a sheltered life, surrounded with people who cared and wanted the best for me. Nothing bad had ever happened before.

Biting my lip, I looked up once more, and put on my trademark passive smile with a scratch of the head. "Well, I guess you're right. I'll be going a long way away from here, and I'll be meeting a whole heap of neat people. But I don't think I'll forget you two. You are my first two friends." My voice only faltered with the last few words.

For the first time ever, I think I saw doubt on both of their faces. It wasn't something that consumed their appearance, it was just a little twitch, but it was there. I couldn't imagine why at the time, though.

"And we won't forget you, Egeus. Do us proud out there!" Maia said firmly, showing a hint of an earlier her.

"Stay focussed and learn from the people you meet, investigate what there is to investigate, try what there is to try," Gol followed up, giving me a sharp nod, now standing up right.

We said our last goodbyes, all very stiff and rushed, as we were all trying to suppress our emotions. And with that, they exited out of the door, and out of my life.

It wouldn't be the last time I would seem them, though.

I sat down once more next to my Zoomer, picking up my wrench to grip it tightly. I turned to tighten up a nut once more, keeping a straight face, trying to accept what happened. _It's going to be okay, _I thought. _Stuff like this happens all the time._ _They won't forget me, they won't…_

When the Yellow Sage came out to the Zoomer pad, exclaiming that he had made 'a dang good muskrat soup!' he found me curled up in a ball, sobbing, my wrench wedged into the surface of the wall opposite.

My name is Egeus, son of the Yellow Sage, and this is my hell.


	3. The Blues

**Hey guys. Or at least one reader. ._. Second to last chapter like this. Thought I might get some eco theory out of the way while I was at it. Hopefully you'll find my take on it interesting and believeableish. I'm no science wizz, but there you go. Of course, any appearances of eco in this story will be working under the rules I have layed out here, so keep that in mind. Jax and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and all of it's characters do not belong to me, and rightfully belong to Naughty Dog. All of the out of game characters mentioned so far are rightfully mine however. Anyway, enjoy, and review if you have time.**

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**ECO AND ITS PROPERTIES  
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**9th Sun of Belia, 3011 A.P.**

_-Eco is the life blood of our planet._

_-Six different types inhabit our planet._

_-The five most abundant are Green, Dark, Blue, Yellow and Red, in that order._

_-The sixth, Light Eco, is extremely rare, and has not been observed since the time of the Precursors._

_-Green eco has a green appearance as its name suggests.  
__-It is the safest of all eco, and has healing properties.  
__-Research by the Green Sage, Samos, suggests that every being on earth has some small store of green eco in their body, allowing for easy absorption and even channelling of the substance. This may also explain why green eco can be seen seeping from the body of the deceased.__  
-Why it would actively escape its host is unknown, but a popular theory is that it is repulsed by dead beings, and instead seeks out life.__  
-It is also heavily associated with the natural world, and the Green Sage has claimed that Green Eco works in a similar way with plants as it does humans.__  
-Where this eco comes from is a mystery like all other eco, but from what little facts we do have, we can deduce that it may have some origin from the plants all over the world, releasing the ingredients necessary for the formation of green eco from their roots into the soil.  
__-This, however, does not explain how we all have natural stores in ourselves.  
_

_-Dark eco is extremely dark purple in colour, and appears as if it is constantly boiling, often spitting out small, wispy globules.__  
-It is the most dangerous substance known to man, and must be handled with extreme care.  
__-Whilst not commonly seen in open or high altitude places, it appears in vast amounts around the lower areas of our continent, which gives it the ranking of second most abundant.__  
-Dark eco has a corroding nature, and so far only Precursor metals have been shown to be able to withstand it. Some other natural rocks can contain it, but it has been observed that these are being slowly eroded back by the eco over hundreds of years.__  
-It has been suggested that the much more technologically advanced Precursors found a way to harness it as an energy source, and thus contained it in large silos found around the world.  
-However, Dark eco has also been blamed on the fall of the Precursors, and that is why thousands of years later, we still avoid trying to unlock its deadly secrets and keep the silos sealed closed, in an attempt to stop what happened to the Precursors, happening to humanity._

We were still so small minded that we didn't dare to touch it. It sickened me, truthfully. If we ever wanted to advance to an age which the Precursors were once at, we would have no choice but to research Dark eco and remove the stigma attached to it. I was so envious of Gol and Maia! They had taken the right steps towards a better future and under taken research themselves, but without the support of the other sages, only a small amount of progress would be able to be made.

I was also insanely jealous of the foolish ingrate living right to the North. He got private tutorage by Gol and Maia themselves. It was what any true aspiring Sage desired. They were wise beyond their years, and had a unique outlook on the world. So much so that they thought it'd be wise to study Dark eco, and eventually got their titles as Dark Sages. I was obviously the more worthy candidate for their teachings. I was the thinker. I was probably the most intelligent young adult in the universe, and their time was being wasted on that dunce. I had to admit, though, what I heard of that Egeus was purely from Zorna, and she was hardly the most reliable source, what with her total lack of respect for any being and explosive temperament. Hm. Maybe Gol and Maia's talents weren't completely being wasted on that boy. There were worst still candidates.

I couldn't remember the last time I had heard from Zorna. We had used the warp gates as a form of communication, but that had stopped a few years ago. She accused me of changing into 'a right bastard'. She hadn't even bothered to hide it in a fancy name. It had stung at the time, as I was telling her of my plans concerning Dark eco, something I had not disclosed to anyone else. In her opinion, I had answered a few moral and ethical questions incorrectly; earning me the title of 'bastard', but that was neither here nor there now. Though, if I had to give my thoughts on the happening, I would have to say that it had toughened my resolve. I was going to have my critics, but as a Sage- as a scientist- I would have to plough my own way through the world, and come back with solid evidence supporting all of my claims, and proving once and for all that I was-

"Raine! Will you stop with your senseless day-dreaming and return to the real world? You have some extremely important notes to continue copying down, and with out them your journey will be doomed to be a miserable failure!" The Blue Sage's intolerable screeching brought me back from my thoughts and instead got me looking up at the small black board he was scribbling on. Whilst I didn't have opportunity to learn under the intelligent Gol and superb Maia, I did have the Blue Sage as a father and a mentor, and he could certainly teach, despite his limited abilities. He was somewhat of a role model, often coming up with new inventions to help society. I just found that he wasn't doing something groundbreaking.

His plans to raise a part of the underwater Precursor city out in the sea near us sounded interesting, though.

Pushing my thin wire frame glasses up my narrow nose, and stroking my platinum coloured hair behind my ear, I began writing once more.

_-Blue Eco appears as a light blue, crackling substance, and is considered to be the most efficient form of energy in our world.  
-It embodies the power of movement and speed.  
-Blue eco has the unique ability to activate old Precursor artefacts, and is therefore considered one of the most important types of eco. Thanks to Blue eco, we have discovered much about the long past Precursors, and been able to adapt their technology to help us today.  
-Due to Blue eco often being the key into many old Precursor buildings, one could deduce that the Precursors themselves relied heavily on the substance as well, and were quite possibly fluent channellers of it.  
-However, finding a Blue eco channeller is now extremely rare. Whilst it is one of the safer types of eco, too much of it can do serious damage to one's heart, as Blue eco speeds up ones body dramatically.  
-It can also be found in the fuel for AGrav Zoomers. One day, Blue eco may be harnessed for even faster means of travel._

I pondered why he hadn't ranted about Blue eco as much as I expected him to. Maybe he realised I did pick up on what he squeaked on about whilst I observed him during his work.

_-Yellow Eco can be found as a bright yellow substance. Users of it often claim feeling a warm sensation.  
-It can be ejected from a channeller's body as a projectile, often described as a fireball.  
-Yellow eco is more of a mysterious eco, for because of its volatile and destructive nature, many choose not to go near it, for fear of accidentally emitting it when friends or valuable property is around.  
-Yellow eco has a lot of potential as a tool in warfare, with its long range and innate ability to home in on targets. However, the longer we can keep peace in the world and don't use eco to harm others, the better.  
-Interestingly, Yellow eco is at a rare premium in the southern half of the continent, where as many vents can be found in the northern._

Much to her disdain. She was lucky that she had me, really.

It also annoyed me how brief he was on Yellow eco. I had often stated my interest in it.

-_Red Eco is, as its name suggests, a bright red in colour. Its appearance is quite similar to that of Yellow eco, other than colour.  
-Whilst one could say it's the fifth most common eco, it is also notably the second rarest, with it's appearances on the earth's surface very few.  
-Red eco gives it's channeller super strength, allowing for even the strongest of enemies to be slayed in a single hit. If one was to hit the ground with enough force, a shock wave of Red eco can be observed.  
-The draw back of this is the user is slowed, not so much to the extent that it is hindering, but enough to be noticeable.  
-Why this is, is uncertain. Many believe that Red eco is derived from deep underground, and whilst it is in a host, it roots their body closer to the ground, slowing them down in effect.  
-Notably, Lurkers, who are also quite slow, are the only known beings to seep Red eco from their bodies when they die, and even then this is rare. Lurkers are known to have their natural home deep under ground, and perhaps there they absorbed the Red eco into their systems. When they come to the surface and through fighting, their natural stores of Red eco wither away. If this theory is to be believed, then one could say only new Lurkers to the surface world are the one's which release Red eco on their death.  
-It is also known to protect the user from small amounts of Dark eco, which can sometimes be found in small crates littered around the world._

I had a feeling I knew why he was writing so much on Red eco. He was trying to make it sound interesting. I had always stated that I would hate to be the Red Sage's apprentice, as Red eco was so hard to come by, and it didn't really do much. However, I could see its uses, and I wasn't about to call it completely useless. It was just boring to my own tastes.

As I finished off the conclusion of the Red eco notes, which contained information how it could be useful in warfare, my mind drifted once more. It drifted on to my up and coming eco run through Fire Canyon, so she could have her fill. Why I did that favour for her, I don't know. Perhaps it was to win over her favour, and help on the pilgrimage around our country. If I were her _true_ friend, I wouldn't keep doing that for her. It was extremely unhealthy.

I think it was also that she would make an interesting test subject. As far as I knew, she was the only one who could do that, despite it only being in small amounts, and small amounts only. Or perhaps, she was the only one who had tried. That was another likeable thing. She did things others wouldn't dare to do.

Apart from that mute.

The envious comments she would make about him also made for an enjoyable time.

Jak was his name, if I remembered correctly. Not exactly an intellectual, but he apparently did better than his little friend Daxter. Strange name, that was. Well, I was going to meet all of her little friends soon enough, when I travelled up to Samos' hut. Sandover was the most densely populated place in the world before my own village, so it would be interesting to see how all those small minds came together and made a living. How they managed to achieve such a large number with out consequence. But for how long that would last, I wondered.

I sniffed and sat back in my chair, waiting for the Blue Sage to hurriedly scribble down the rest of his notes. Not only did he have an obligation to keep my mind busy, but he also had to finish a large machine, built for the purpose of moving all the flaming boulders we had been plagued with. To my understanding, a large beast given the name 'Klaww' by the villagers, had been throwing down the boulders from a fiery pit atop the cliff overlooking the small town. A so called 'great hero' was hired to stop the monster, but he failed quite miserably. Now, all there was to do was keep under shelter, and wait for the Blue Sage to finish up with his invention. It would probably be completed in a week or so, if everything went to plan.

Pushing up my glasses once more, my grey eyes examined the miserable world outside. It was constantly raining on and off here, and it was a surprise the rain hadn't put out the fire consuming the boulder. How did the fire even survive on the rock? There were many things in the world that science still couldn't explain. I would, though. One day.

When I was a Sage, everything would be different. I'd actually use my powers over my eco, preferably Yellow, to help people. I would go out and vanquish those who would hinder the world's progress. I would unite the Sages, and together we would unlock the mysteries of Dark AND Light eco. Of course, certain people had to play certain parts, and I had an idea of how I was going to sway each person into begging to be under certain apprenticeship.

From what I heard from Zorna, the dunce had never been outside before in his life. All the plants and so on would interest him to no end, so with the right sort of pushing, he'd become a harmless Green Sage.

Zorna herself would have to become the Red Sage. Under more training of her apparently slow mentor, she herself would dumb down quite a bit. She loved her father quite a lot too, and I believed that the separation would be too much for her. Besides, I thought she'd like the notion of being 'powerful'.

The last of the other three would need to become the Blue Sage. She was well suited for it, I believed. The rush of Blue eco would probably satisfy her more than the other eco out there. The Blue Sage would probably annoy her to no end, but she owed me a favour.

That left the filling of the Yellow Apprentice to me. Sure, I wouldn't be able to stand that hillbilly of a Sage, but I would be able to get tutorage from Gol and Maia, and I would have the power of the most destructive Yellow eco, which could be fashioned for all sorts of different uses. I would have her who could give me access down into Precursor monoliths and such, without question, and the power to destroy what ever or who ever would stand against me.

"Raine! Are you even paying an iota of attention?" my father hollered once more, waving his upperhalf in such a way that it made the little spings on his helmet wave and jiggle.

But for now…

_-Channellers are those with the ability…_

My name is Raine, son of the Blue Sage, and this is my hell.


	4. Green with Envy

**Last introductory post, yay. Maybe now people will review me. :O Kidding, kidding, of course. You'll probably note that the first part of this chapter is in present time, then the rest past tense. That was just os you could really get the feel of the rushed thoughts and movement, nothing else. Normal disclaimers apply, every out of game character belongs soley to me, however. Please enjoy, and if it tickles your fancy, review!**

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Tossing and turning.

The itching to get out.

Tentative footsteps, trying to avoid waking those in a blissful land of dreams.

Down the stairs, fifth one creaking, and well as the seventh.

Calmer, more careless steps along the base floor, then out the door.

This was the chance.

Sliding out of bed, strides easily eating up the distance between me and the stairs.

A change in pace, leaps down the stairs, third, sixth and ninth.

Slowing down, tip toes, across the ground floor, making sure not to wake the girl sleeping below. Freedom prickling through my legs.

Out the door, and that begins the dashing.

Powerful, yet graceful legs, prancing over the bridge in three simple creaks.

Through the village, now at full pelt. The slow grind of the windmill, stench of dead fish, the more pleasant aroma of polished wood, the tink of metal against stone, the gentle twittering of birds fill the senses.

Across the silent, sturdy bridge, heart pounding with adrenaline, lungs bursting, full of air.

Surely, freedom at last.

Throwing body at full speed off of the ledge, only to land on the soft sand. Yakows quietly snuffle in sleep, in unison with contented snores from their watcher.

Ten steps full of the wind to the first ledge.

Eight more to make it to the top of the cliff.

Shakes take over my legs as they make the final stretch to the rock.

But not of exhaustion, no. Shakes of nervousness, shakes of fear.

This was no freedom, but a cage.

I curled up in a ball behind a rather large rock, ears straining for any pursuing footsteps. After a minute of silence, I raised my head and looked around, looking for the slightest of movements. Anyone could be my greatest threat.

This was a cage I had created for myself, one I had to live with due to my choices.

But it was only going to be one more time, I swore. After this, I would emancipate myself from this practise, and I could go on as a free woman.

I let my body relax a bit more, stretching out my legs, whilst leaning back on the warm rock. It was a full moon that night, which lit up the country side as well as a lantern could. At least to my heightened senses, it did. The glow from the magma just a few metres away did nothing to help with my concealment either. But I knew the best place to hide, and I knew exactly where the shadows were. I had to.

Everything from the time Samos got out of bed to check on his Green Eco Catchers, to the moment when I reached the top of the cliff was all routine for me now. Every month, or even two weeks, if I was lucky, I went out there and waited. Waited for the sound of an approaching Zoomer.

Sure enough, its familiar hum hit my ears, despite it being as faint as the flapping of a butterfly. It slowly got louder and louder, as did the pounding of my heart. I always got nervous around this time. It was always the most risky, as the sound of a Zoomer engine up close is a loud thing. I would know, my sister was always playing around with them, trying to make them more efficient. They were of no interest to me, but Keira was always calling for help, lifting this, riding that. Through this, I had learned the usefulness of the Zoomer. A good natured soul, her obsession with those flying machines still managed to annoy the living Eco out of me, however. Sometimes I wondered if we were even truly related. We certainly looked nothing alike, what with my auburn and her black, green tipped hair. My height and her frail stature. Her smiles and my frowns. Her beauty and my-

The hums got closer, now approaching around the final corner of Fire Canyon, the one which would lead the traveller to peaceful Sandover Village. But he wouldn't be staying. He'd only be unloading a precious cargo then returning back into the night, most likely to get sleep before a hectic morning. It really was nice of him, coming out all this way just for me when he really should be sleeping. But was it really kindness? No, Raine wasn't one to go out of his way just to show friendship. He was using this as leverage later, I knew this. I had that advantage over him. He thought I was oblivious to everything and small minded, just like the people I lived around, but I'd prove him wrong. We'd see who the sharpest player in this game was yet.

The Zoomer's hums came closer and closer still, coming to a climax of noise, till they deepened to just growls. I curled up once more in a ball, hiding in the shadow of the large boulder. He knew I was there; I just didn't want him to see me. Not quite yet.

There was a quiet clunk as he unloaded the boxes with a bit of a grunt. I could imagine him now, standing there, wiping his forehead. Looking around to see the recipient of the cargo, but only finding empty, dark scenery.

"Still not coming out, Olethea? You don't need to hide; I'm not going to alert anyone of our presence." His smooth voice dripped with confidence and superiority, as if he was talking down to a child. I certainly wasn't going to come out if he was going to use that tone. All I wanted was for him to go away, so I could get to the crates. I squeezed my eyes closed and began willing him away with all my mental power.

"You will be seeing me tomorrow after all. Why not get the animosity over and done with now, so we can do things a tad quicker tomorrow? Meet up, check supplies, and then have a look around. No awkward greetings, no sizing up of each other…I'm sure you'd prefer that," he continued on, now sitting on the crates which gave a creak of protest. It was true, that yes, I could have gotten up and greeted him, but something still held me back. I still felt skittish and shaky. I just needed to get tonight over and done with so I could go to bed at peace.

Several minutes passed without event, each testing the other how long they could stand the silence. I twisted a small tuft of grass anxiously between my fingers whilst I waited for him to give up, until the blade broke off, green staining the pad of my thumb and index finger. I moved on to the next, and then the next, till there was nothing left of the tuft to fiddle with, yet still he hadn't budged. I could hear my heart beating hard and fast, but I tried to keep my breaths even. I began to wriggle my feet, trying to work out the tension filling my body that way. There was no relief, and the stubborn man still sat there, unmoving.

I figured that half an hour must have passed by the time I started to really lose patience. I was about to stand up and just give him what he wanted so he would go away, but at that moment a chilly sea breeze swept through the area, making it briefly chilly, despite the boiling hot lava right next to us. That is when I heard him shiver, and sigh, getting up off the crates. "Alright, then. Tomorrow it is. I hope to see you bright eyed and busy tailed, dear Olethea," he muttered with a hint of sarcasm. I heard him hop on his Zoomer once more and kick start the engine, which sounded obscenely loud compared to the silence before. Without a moments hesitation he roared off, leaving just the growl of the engine in his wake. I waited only for it to become a distant echo before I pounced.

There were four crates, just as promised. I made quick work of bringing them behind my rock in twos. Despite Eco being something like gas, the crates were rather heavy, and carrying any more would hurt my back. I lined them up, sitting before them once more and letting out a shaky breath. It was finally time.

My quivering hand worked deftly, doing the work it had done several times before. I unclipped and flipped open the lid of each crate, carefully checking each one's contents. Blue, Yellow, Red and Green, in that exact order. This just so happened to be my favourite order, as it had a nice calming effect.

This sort of practise had no official name, but it was none the less illegal. It was unhealthy, apparently, but I had never noticed any changes in my immune system, or any symptoms of Eco Poisoning, so I decided to go on with it. I really had no choice, at the time. I was hooked.

Channelling eco was no small feat, by any means. If you could only channel one type of eco, that was still seen as a huge achievement. Channelling all four types of 'Safe Eco', as we called it, was extremely difficult, and cases of people successfully doing this were rare. So rare one could probably count it on one hand. I was, of course, no super human or big headed, and wouldn't claim to be able to do it. If I were to use vents to try and channel each one I'd most certainly faint. Only Jak could do that. Only Jak. Precious Jak, who was so important and could do everything. Only Jak, who Samos considered more important than his own daughters at times. Damn Jak.

Whilst I wasn't nearly as talented as the amazing Jak, I could manage the large balls of eco without much effort, which was still fairly amazing in itself. I'd love to be able to brag to Samos about my skills, deep down, and get praise and attention from him as any child would, but then it would give me away. He'd lecture me for hours, all about being responsible and what not, and how I shouldn't attempt to do something so reckless.

Well, he certainly couldn't stop me now.

The act of 'Eco Sampling', I called it myself, was fairly straight forward. I would absorb one ball of eco, allow that to go through me, and then absorb the next, and so on. Whilst this doesn't sound amazing, the feeling truly is. The sudden rush of feelings, of all the sorts of power was enough to take one to an emotional high that you couldn't gain from anywhere else. You felt so at peaceful and fulfilled afterwards that you could breeze through life without care, until it slowly waned away, leaving you with a bigger hole to fill each time. But tonight was going to be my last night for this, and then I'd have bigger things to achieve, things which would occupy my body and mind, distracting me from that hole in me, and leading me out of the cage I had built for myself.

I took a deep breath in and out, looking over to the Blue eco box, preparing myself for what was going to come next. I always became eerily calm at this point, my prior emotions of anxiety melting away to nothing. Slowly, I reached my hand out, and hovered it over the box. With this calm feeling came rational thinking. I could always walk away now, and refuse to submit to my addiction. I could go home, go back to bed, sleep, get sent off on my journey and not touch another glob of eco until I became an apprentice. I could always do that.

But…

I was here now. My hand was only centimetres away from initiating the ritual. I might as well press on. Might as well. My hand dived into the box.

As soon as it reached into the depths, I could feel the blue eco sizzle up through my veins, shrouding me in a blue light which danced in a frenzy around the canyon walls. My heart began to beat faster and faster still. I suddenly felt alive and full of potential. I felt as if I could run a mile without taking a breath. I felt as if I could make anything work, anywhere in the world, effortlessly.

As this feeling began to wane away, I automatically shoved my hand into the crate containing Yellow eco.

The sudden change in emotions brought around euphoria. The Yellow eco seeped through my blood system, and I began radiating a warm yellow light. When I turned my head, it seemed as if I had the vision of a hawk. Misty Island which was usually only a dark blob on the horizon, seemed clear as if it was right up close. The destructive feeling was amazing as well. I felt as if I could waltz on in to the village below and just simply burn up anything and everything without resistance. Like I would enjoy seeing everything up in flames. It was all I could do to keep myself rooted to the ground whilst channelling this eco. It was the most dangerous to have in the system, and always had to be sampled early in the ritual, to make sure the destructive feeling didn't linger after my session.

Like all good things, the feeling started to end, and I was quick to move my hand into the thick Red eco.

The next change was more reassuring than anything, as if everyone in the world was patting me on the back, giving me their strength and protection. Red light reflected off the rocky wall of the canyon, making the place seem eerie. But not to me at the time. I felt safe and strong, like a fortress. No one could harm me, and I could plough through anything without fear. I could protect myself and thousands more easily. Red eco was always a viable option for the last eco to try, since it left it's user with a warm and protective feeling, but often I just wanted to mellow out with something more familiar.

With this, I reached into the last box to feel the familiar sensation of gentle Green eco.

Green eco wasn't something that one could exactly channel, but it dispelled any of the left over eco from before and just left your core feeling full of life. It gave you hope, and nursed any of your hurts. It left you feeling like a normal person, a person who could do great good for everyone. A friendly person, even.

I slumped against the rough surface of the rock behind me once more, marking the end of the night's fun. I panted slightly even though I wasn't breathless. It was more to have the cold air wake me up and bring me back to the real world, which I would soon have to return to. First things first, though.

Standing up stiffly, I paced for a bit, getting all the kinks out of my body before I did any more lifting. This was also a good time to listen for anyone who might be near, on the verge of finding me up here in the middle of the night. Luckily for me though, there never was anyone. Sandover was just a normal, sleepy old village.

Feeling more limber now after my stretch, I bent down and picked up the now considerably light boxes and carried them over to the magma. I tried to keep my distance, as I found the heat didn't agree with me at all. How I expected to travel over this later one was a mystery. Taking the first box, I hefted it up then threw it on to the boiling river, and watched as it instantly got immolated. The same process happened to the last three, till there was no more evidence that anything had occurred this night.

My work now down, and feeling rather sleepy myself, I headed back to the mouth of the canyon and began clambering down the natural steps, careful not to disturb the sleeping Yakow. I say Yakow and not the old man because I could probably could have made the whole cliff collapse and he still wouldn't wake up.

That's when I heard the most pitiful wail.

It was more of an echo of a wail, as if it was coming from far off in the distance. I strained my ears to try and hear more, but what ever it was had fallen silent, with only the sound of breaking waves, Yakow and snoring now filling my ears. When I thought about it more, it sounded familiar. Strangely familiar.

_It couldn't be…could it? _I thought, frowning deeply. _He's usually asleep at this time…_

But there was no denying. It was him

_Oh Precursors…what now? _I promptly began a quick pace back to the hut. The sooner I was back in bed and acting innocent, the better.

My name is Olethea, daughter of the Green Sage, and this is my hell.


	5. Thoughts for the Morning

**Hey again, guys. You might have noticed I broke my pattern of posting every three days. Sorry about that. School and everything caught up with me, and I hadn't the time to write a single thing. Well, I'm back, and this time we get to hear about all four in one post. Exciting, right? Well, usual stuff, I don't own the rights to Jak and Daxter or any of the characters. Hopefully someone will review this time, other wise I might just jump off a cliff. Not really, but updating will become less of a priority to me. Anyway, please enjoy.**

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For the first time in years, I had a nightmare.

I dreamt that I was running, as fast as I could, but I didn't get anywhere. My surroundings were like a blank page, with no sky or ground, or boundaries. It scared me because there wasn't an order to anything. Nothing was just so. There was nothing weighing me down to the earth, and nothing from keeping me flying away. So I ran and I ran. I hated how indefinite it was.

Then suddenly, I wasn't running for no reason. I was running away from something. Something looming over me like a huge shadow which stretched on for miles and miles. Another indefinite space, pitch black. It was a shadow, but nothing was casting it. It was swallowing the nothing, and leaving it with an even more daunting nothing. It wasn't blank, it couldn't be moulded. It was every where now, swallowing me up.

What scared me more that was that I realised that it wasn't daunting, and that I liked it. I liked living in a place with no potential. Nothing to rise up and do. It just was, and let me stay within my own shell, where it was safe.

I opened my eyes with a start. My whole body was tense, and my blanket was tangled around my legs. Slowly, I took a shaky breath in, then out. The room was still dark, and I could hear Red's snuffles, indicating he was still fast asleep. I crawled out of bed, being careful not to hit my head on the glowing bar. Whilst there wasn't any true day or night down here, we tried to make an artificial night in the hut so we could get some proper sleep. Having the thick curtains covering the windows did make it stifling hot, much to my own annoyance. But for once, I didn't feel like waking up the whole household with my complaints. I didn't feel like saying anything at all.

I started to get dressed as quietly as I could. I pulled my cleanest white shirt on, covering that with my red tunic. The one main thing which would identify who I was. That I came from the Red Sage's dominion. Old Red. No, with him, dominion wasn't the right word. He wasn't commanding, nor did he really lead. He just did what he always did, checking on the mining carts, reading, writing, and taking care of me. He'd carved out his own niche for himself from nothing. Could I do that? I felt so safe just residing within what he built. Life was made for me, with no stress. I hated stress.

By the time I had pulled on my boots and had everything buckled on tightly, Round Red had woken up, and was now shuffling about, checking over my backpack.

"You managed to pack multiple pairs of everything in here, yes?" He asked, peering into the depths of my pack.

"Mhm," I mumbled behind a bite of bread. It had been the first breakfast I'd had in awhile. But this morning was special, after all.

"All the food I made for you is in there too? Even the healthy items?" he continued on slowly, as if he was reading from a mental check list.

"Mhm."

"Did you say goodbye to the mining gentlemen?"

I shook my head. "I didn't think they'd really be interested to hear I'm leaving today. They're only interested in that diamond," I replied softly, brushing the crumbs off my lap.

The Red Sage toddled over to sit next to me on the bed. It gave a threatening creak, and I could feel myself being pulled into the pit he had made by sitting down. He rubbed his hairy chin thoughtfully, giving me one of his thoughtful looks. "No names, no fiery attitude, no complaints, nothing disrespectful. Is something the matter, Zorna?"

"I guess it's just hit me I'm going to be leaving for awhile, is all. Leaving everything that I've known my whole life for something different. Kinda scary," I half lied, looking away from him. It was true that I was upset to leave the place that I'd grown up in, but at the same time, I wanted to get out a bit and see the world. See the world I'd been born into, and try and find my place. Or maybe that was what really scared me. Things that were certain were being taken away. But that dream, that was the main thing that nagged at my mind.

"Well, why don't you have a quick walk? Go down and see the miners. They might spark some of that fire back up into you. I'll be waiting here for you. I hope to see you with a bit more of a smile on your face when you come back," the old man suggested, the sort of a suggestion that somehow became an order, and somehow I found myself following that order, legs tumbling out of the door way. I definitely knew then that I wouldn't miss that. Being able to do what I pleased be great. Giving attitude to anyone without feeling bad for it. Those thoughts made me straighten up more, and my steps started to fill with resolve. I was going to see those miners, and leave them a lasting impression. I was going to go back to the hut, then get formally sent on my journey by my father, and then I was going to march on down to the Lava Tube and wait for Egeus, and then we were going off to go something awesome. It was going to be a good day. No stupid dream could bring me down.

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I woke up to my dad shaking me around, hollering about the time.

"Git up! Yer haven't packed an' I got some soup waitin' for yer an' yer need to git up and go go go go go!"

When I was older, I wouldn't have soup for breakfast any more, I decided right then and there. I didn't like having soup for breakfast at all. It made me slow and sleepy. Being slow and sleepy wasn't all that bad, though.

I rolled out of bed and stretched, looking around sleepily. It seemed like any other day, except it wasn't, I knew that. It was the day I was supposed to go on my journey. I couldn't help but smile at that thought. I was going somewhere.

I stood up completely and lumbered over to my pile of clothes. I figured most of them would be clean, so I pulled on a clean looking white t-shirt and a uniform yellow tunic. It stood out against my odd dark olive skin, but I liked that. Just for that day I liked it, because it was my special day. The rest of the clothes I stuffed in my dusty looking rucksack which I'd pulled out of storage the other day.

"Got some clean pairs of pants?" the Yellow Sage called from the stove, where he was stirring an odd smelling stew. "Yer need pants!"

I looked down at myself, and I could see what he meant. Normally, I would have shrunk in embarrassment of him seeing me like this, but for some reason, I didn't mind. Instead, I whistled while I pulled on a pair of what I assumed were cleaned pants from the corner, shoving another pair into the bag as well. After that I managed to fit in my old square pillow, which was followed by my blanket.

"Will you stop with yer darn lip tootin' an' get eatin'? Yer not gonna get anywhere on an empty tank!"

"Coming!" I called back, dragging my pack with me to the table. Even though my knees were higher than the actual table top and the chair was far too small, I still ate at this table because I didn't want to cause a fuss in asking for a new one. I was the only one who used the table, since the Yellow Sage always ate on the go, so asking for one would be greedy. At least I thought so, anyway. I sat myself down on the small chair and within seconds, a large bowl was placed before me. I slowly peered into it, with dad at my shoulder, looking at me expectantly. It looked like any other soup he would make, but the smell was definitely different.

"It's got a secret ingredient terday. Can yer guess what it is?" he asked, getting a mysterious tone to his voice. To be honest, I didn't think I wanted to know what he put it in, so I simply shrugged.

"I'm not very good with cooking, so I guess I'll just trust you with this one," I replied, giving the back of my head a nervous scratch. I wasn't about to disappoint him by saying that I wasn't hungry or felt ill from the smell, so I simply grasped the bowl and put it to my lips.

I think if I were to drink Dark eco, that's what it would taste like. The taste made my mouth sting, and each swallow made my stomach churn with disgust, but I kept pouring it all down my throat till it was all gone. I was determined to make it a good day for everyone without any fuss. The Yellow Sage whooped as I forced it all down and clapped me on the back, which almost undid my efforts.

"That's ma boy! I never did see no nobody down that like you just did, boy! That's what real heroes are made of!"

His praise made something inside of me warm up, like nothing had managed to in a long time. Even more than when Gol or Maia would call me clever. I felt so positive and special, I wasn't quite sure what to do. Even though it had often been about me down there, that day was different. Things were just going to go right. They had to.

"Now you just go an' finish up yer packin', and we can send you on yer way!" the Sage hollered gleefully, pulling me out of me chair. I couldn't help but give him a proper smile before I left to pack in some food. Not the stoic smile that I often held. A proper smile. This was true happiness. Gol was right. I would move on from them leaving, and I was determined that it was going to be that very day.

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"Sleeping rug!"

"Check."

"Three spare changes of blue tunics!"

"Check."

"Wax candles!"

"Check."

This list had been going on forever. Whilst lists were essential for any organising, the ones the Blue Sage devised were so comprehensive that it wasn't necessary. I was a scientific mind, and all scientific minds appreciate order and method, but I was also a male before that, and it was wearing on my patience. I honestly just wanted to shove some items within the pack and get going, but it was not to be with a father like mine.

"All items on the inventory list accounted for! Now, what else is on the to-do list?" he asked more to himself than anyone else, foraging around the lab to find the piece of paper. Of course, he knew back to front what the list said, as did I. "Check the Zoomer for any faults, and make sure it's tank is full," I answered for him, just as he managed to salvage the list to hold it up in the air triumphantly. "Correct! To the canyon!" he cried, marching out the door.

He definitely lived up to any stereotypical expectations one would have about a Blue Sage. He was constantly on the move and never skipped a beat. Extremely good with machines as well. As soon as we reached the canyon mouth he had the wrench out ready, complaining that the handlebars were out of alignment, which could have lead to a serious crash. When I looked upon the Zoomer, I saw nothing but a normal Zoomer. We all had our fortes, I suppose.

Whilst I stood and watched him work with the Zoomer, adjusting it to what he thought would be perfect, I couldn't help but wonder what he had done in his life outside of Rock Village. Before he was even a sage. Had he been an explorer? A scientist? Or simply a normal, average man? Considering it was to be my last day as a proper pupil under him, I thought I might as well ask.

"What were you, before you were a Sage?" I was surprised at how small my voice sounded. I usually wasn't shy or nervous. Perhaps it was because I was afraid of knowing the answer. Of knowing what lies outside of the security of the little world that had been built up there. Of knowing that there's a possibility of just being a normal human being. What was scaring me more that these possible spooks were making me less of a thinker, and more of a feeler.

"What was I? A human, just like you and everyone else around here. What you really should be asking is _who_ was I. If what you chose to do in life only remains as just what you are, then you've chosen the wrong thing, Raine. If you really enjoy and love what you do, it becomes a part of who you are!" The Blue Sage explained, speaking over all the noise he was making whilst fixing the Zoomer.

"Then would it be correct to assume that what ever you were doing, was something that you would prefer to be doing now, since you seem to speak of it so highly," I asked, trying to keep any scorn from entering my voice. His reply was quite disappointing. He was trying to go into a deeper conversation about emotions, and doing what was right, and being true to yourself. All of which didn't really appeal to me.

"No, I quite disagree! If some one was to gesture to me now and ask the person next to them, "Who is he?" they would reply, "Why, he's the Blue Sage!" It is definitely apart of who I am, as a person. Now, if it were the same situation but the questioner asked 'what' instead of 'whom', you would find the end result would be the same. Being the Blue Sage is who I am and what I am, and consumes all of my being. It is something I enjoy, something that I love, and something that I live to do. At the end of your journey, Raine, you may surprise yourself on what this becomes. Not all of life is planned out to a 'tee', and I will be the first to admit that!

But, before all of that, before who can even take on something like that as who and what you are; you must recognize what you were born as, what you are before anything else. A human. Humans have the potential to reach the stars and more, but also the potential to destroy all that is good in the world. You must recognize yourself as a human and accept all that is positive and negative that comes with that."

The Blue Sage stood up and wiped his hands down on a small rag which he had pulled out of his right pocket. And indeed, without missing a beat, he proclaimed the machine perfect and began tottering down to the hut once more, ready to give me my parting gift. I on the other hand, was left in his dust, mulling over his words. In a strange way, they made sense. Understand your own weaknesses to able to become something more. At least, that's what I thought he was getting at. Suddenly, I was unsure about many things, everything that I stood for. Just a brief speech made could do that to me, Raine. Raine was someone strong minded, strong willed, and believed in all his morals and goals.

I tried to convince myself that I was over thinking things, and began to make my way back to the lab when it hit me.

He had completely danced around my original question.

* * *

"-and you go to the only place I told you not to, Misty Island!"

It had been a whirlwind of a morning. Getting up after only a couple of hours sleep, getting dressed in my best green tunic, going for and early morning run, coming back for breakfast, checking over my packed bag. It had been nice in a way, though. Samos had payed attention to me. Me, me, and only me. It felt good to have his eye son me, having him give tips, and words of encouragement. Of course, Keira had been excited out of her mind, and had also been following me around, fetching stuff for my journey. Sometimes I wondered if she ever felt bitter that I was the one who got to on this journey, not her. Sure, she had her Zoomers, but were they really enough?

Yes, the morning had been great, until the guilty party had returned. They had been trying to sneak to the Green Eco vat sitting in the main room, no doubt to try and reverse what had happened. Samos had been quick to find them, and ever quicker to start berating them about what they did. He didn't even seem surprised when Daxter moved into full view.

I thought being a rat suited him.

I leant against the door way and watched as Samos went on about responsibility, and how things like that would happen if they didn't listen to him. I couldn't even help but give a little sadistic smile when it was revealed he couldn't help Daxter. It served him right, in my mind. Samos was always extra lenient on those two, and now it was all coming back to bite them.

My little moment of smugness was soon ripped away from me when it was decided that they would have to journey north with me. My anguish rising further when Keira volunteered to lend them her spare Zoomer. Further still when Samos demanded that he supervise them along the way. That would mean that he would be supervising me as well. The journey was supposed to be my days of freedom. Then, I also felt a little annoyed. What about everyone else? They would come up to this hut, expecting to find the Green Sage. He was supposed to give them their gifts, and pass on some of his knowledge. But now, thanks to those two…

"The others."

Everyone turned to look at me, their argument instantly being dropped. To be honest, I wasn't much of a talker. I could go weeks without saying a word, but I certainly was no mute. Not like that Jak.

Samos looked down guiltily for a moment, gripping his staff tighter in hand. "It simply cannot be helped, Olethea. Without my supervision, these two will never be able to accomplish their own journey. I will simply have to leave their gifts behind with a note attached. Whilst it is not preferable way to go about things, it will just have to be. Count yourself lucky for at least being able to see me in person!" he rumbled, somehow turning to back on me. Samos was good at that. It was never his fault.

"Soooo….we get to travel with the lovely lady Olethea. Olly, do you mind if I call you Olly? I'll be taking good care of you, baby. With me around, you won't have to worry about a single thing!" Daxter purred at me, his voice oozing with confidence. I would have kicked him had it not been for Jak's quick cuff on the head.

"Hey! What was that for?"

Jak simply rolled his eyes and gave a meek smile at me, then nodded his head at the back room, where he stayed. Presumably, he was going to get ready. Daxter was quick to follow him, grumbling all the while.

"I was just trying to me niiiiice! I know you wouldn't mind having a little feminine company on the way eiithheeeer," he whined, only to be ignored by the blonde.

I shook my head is quiet disbelief, straightening up from my relaxed position in the door frame. I could already feel that relaxed feeling I had attained from the night before waning away. The two remaining looked at me expectantly, as if I was going to have more input on the situation.

"I'll live."


	6. Word to the Wise

**Thought I'd try a little third person for this chapter. If you guys prefer the first person, then just let me know and I'll change it back. During some points I may alternate back between first and third, for the parts where I think a character needs to give their own thoughts and their own perspective on things. As always, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and all its characters do not belong to me; it all belongs to Naughty Dog. Clever Naughty Dog! Pleasepleasepleaseplease review, I'd appreciate it greatly, and I'll be sure to review back on any of your current stories. :3**

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A sombre mood fell over the hut. All the good byes had been said, and not without reward. A warm power cell now glowed in pocket, releasing warm vibes up through Zorna's leg. But it didn't fill the silence which had settled between the two, nor did it ease the pain in her heart. The pain she felt when she saw the Red Sage's eyes grow misty, and then harden, only to mist up once more, as if he was fighting a huge internal battle. He had no desire to let the one person he had been taking care of for fifteen years go, but he knew it just had to be done. She had to find her own way in the world.

As he looked down on the girl who stared adamantly back, he could remember everything. From the first time she spoke, the first hair cut, the first adventure out of the hut. The first time she had ridden the carts, the first time she had experienced the pain of a burn, her first lot of tears. The time she had sworn never to cry again. The agonized face she held the week her ears grew out to their full grown up length. How her eyes welled up, but never spilled over. The first time she had asked why she looked different to him. Why everything was how it was. How over time, she had grown into a head strong young woman, ready to make her own way in the world.

Finally, the silence was broken, as the Red Sage spoke, still in his usual slow gait. "Zorna, today is the day in which you will go out on your pilgrimage, and discover the world as it is. This journey is your birth right; coming into the world on the day of the First Eclipse, where all in the World went silent, and the Oracles sang out praise- praise for those hand picked by the mighty Precursors. You are one of Four, Zorna, your destiny forever bound with the rest of the Children. How ever, remember this: your destiny is what you make it. Only you can make your own decisions, and make your future.

As the Red Sage, master of the elusive Red Eco, unto you I must deliver words of wisdom that you must be able to comprehend to be able to truly become the best person you can be. The name 'Zorna' means 'passion' in a long lost language. Passion is a trait found solely in those with conscious thought, and is what separates us from the rest of the creatures of the World. Passion is the fire in the heart, which drives us to live on, and achieve our greatest aspirations. Red Eco, I believe, embodies passion well. Red, the colour well known as the colour of passion, and a stimulate. When taken into the system, Red Eco does exactly that. It stimulates the body to its full potential, and allows one to plough through all obstacles in your way. This is what you must do, Zorna. Over come all that there is to over come, live to your full potential, and inspire passion into the hearts around you."

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"As the Yeller Sage, an' master o' all the Yeller Eco any where, I need to tell you some real important things, Egeus, so you can travel through this here World of ours without a hitch. Now, yer name, 'Egeus' means 'protection', or 'shield'. Yer prob'ly thinkin', 'Well, wouldn't that be a fine name fer some one dealin' with Red Eco?' I reckon so myself, actually. Even still, Yeller Eco can be used to per-tect people too, when it's used properly! Ever heard o' the sayin', 'Best defence is offense'? Applies directly to this here eco, it does. But, there are other ways o' per-tectin' yerself and people around yer. Yer got a big heart thumpin' in that chest o' yours, a heart that could per-tect any ol' person. One o' the greatest joys in life is bein' able to look after the ones yer love, son, so I hope yer keep that in mind."

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"As the Blue Sage, the grand wizard of all things Blue Eco in the World, I must inform you of something exponentially important! Your birth name, 'Raine', when translated back to one of the old dialects means 'Wise Ruler'. To be a ruler is to be in power, yes, but not all rulers are wise. A wise ruler will bring prosperity to his nation, and be able to drive away any threats that would threaten his people with mind boggling tactics and the sheer power of the mind! A wise ruler must also have a strong sense of justice as well, and hold the value of all lives the same as any other, and also above all else. Blue Eco can easily be related to this topic. It is blue, a most impressive colour, bringing about that calm any prospective leader would need. It also has the power to open all sorts of paths, and opens up the future to us as more is learnt. A leader is always learning, and must be able to humble his self. Remember this, Raine, and you'll never go wrong!"

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"As the Green Sage, the oldest of all human beings on this earth and the master of Green Eco, it has been put upon me the task of giving you vital knowledge which will help you on your inevitable journey. Your name, 'Olethea', means 'truth'. Truth is what we all strive to find, and without that, we are lost. It may always seem more comfortable to be blissfully unaware with nicer sounding lies, but without the truth, good will never prevail. The earth itself is full of the truth. It can accurately tell us what happened and when without fault, when we know how to look for the signs. Green Eco, the life eco, is derived from the earth, and with it we can give others life so they can go on to search for the truth in the future. Olethea, the truth, whilst it may seem obscure now, is always within your reach, you must simply sift through the false truths."

"WHOAH! How damn boring do you want to be? _Truths this, earth that, plants can talk, a whole load of…" _Daxter's impression of Samos was cut off short by Jak grabbing him into a headlock, smiling sheepishly at the scowling Sage as the frowning Olethea.

"I thought I told you boys to wait outside! I'm not finished here yet and I don't need you two messing up anything else!" Samos barked at the young man and Ottsel, who were quick to exchange looks then scamper outside once more.

"Ahem…now that they're gone, I can give you your present. It is an extremely valuable item, and you must take very good care of it," Samos began, turning around to hover over the Green Eco vat which he kept in the main room. Slowly, he reached to the surface of the ever rippling liquid, which caused the ripples to become even more frantic as something began to emerge. A dark green oval like object slid out of the liquid, springing into Samos' out stretched hand. He then offered it to Olethea, who gently took it and cupped it in her hands. "Whilst it may just look like an over sized seed at the moment, the Life Seed holds a large amount of potential energy, and has many amazing properties. The main one which you need to know of is it's amazing healing powers, which when used properly can cure any wound. Use it sparingly, though. There is only one existing in the world at this very moment, and if it were to be mis-used, there would be terrible implications for the future. And don't expect to be raising anyone from the dead with it, either; that sort of power has not yet been unlocked. Now, go, and begin your journey!"

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The Blue Sage held a strange box in front of Raine, who looked down at it disdainfully. "Is this your gift?" he asked, jumping back slightly as the box gave a bit of a jump.

"Why yes, yes it is! I think you'll enjoy it immensely, Raine. It'll be a whole barrel full of fun, and you'll find that soon you'll never want to abandon it! Now, you just go and take off the lid, and discover your surprise!" Blue Sage chirped with excitement, his eyes sparkling. Raine complied with a bit of a huff, flicking off the lid. A bright glow surrounded the two men for a moment, before it focussed and seemed to leap onto the younger man's body, running around in circles through his clothes and over his bare arms. Raine could help but give a short laugh from the tickling sensation. It certainly was quite a present.

The blue glowing ball finally stopped at his shoulder, and made a little purring sound. Turning his head, Raine gazed back into two bright blue eyes, and felt his nose being prodded at by a slightly wetter one. He honestly could help but smile. "You got me a Muse? I thought that they were extremely rare…and why is this one blue?"

"Well, I found the little fellow floundering around in one of my Blue Eco containers. He must have fallen in and gotten saturated with the substance, and now seems to have that permanent blue glow. I hope you enjoy your new companion, Raine! He seems to like you already."

Raine agreed. The small animal was rubbing its face up against his cheek. He could feel the crackling sensation of Blue Eco, but also it's soft fur. Whilst he had promised himself he was not going to get attached to anything or anyone on this journey for there would be no point, he could feel his heart melting. He could make this exception, he supposed. _It is only natural for humans to find joy in having a pet, and they are supposedly a good stress reliever_, he thought to himself, in an attempt to justify yet another decision and feeling that just wasn't normal for himself.

"Well now, Raine, it's time for you to go up the dangerous Fire Canyon and see the Green Sage in Sandover Village! Remember now, when you come back through here you're not allowed back in my hut! It's against the rules! Now go learn, and good luck!"

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The Yellow Sage and Egeus stood by the Zoomer, looking out over the hot lave which largely comprised the Lava Tube. Egeus slowly pulled on his thick leather goggles around his eyes and straddled over the seat, starting up the engine with a satisfying roar, which made the two males grin stupidly. Egeus was about to give a final nod to his old father and set off, having all the goodbyes being said, when the Sage suddenly smacked his forehead. "I thought I was fergettin' somethin'!"

He first rummaged around in his coat for something, pulling a very concentrated expression as he seemed to be undoing something. After a few moments, the look of success over came his face, and he soon pulled out a large bright bronze plate, and held it out to Egeus. The young man took it and looked over it for a moment, puzzling over what it was, till it finally came to him. "A chest plate? Which you've been wearing? Won't you need this?" he asked with come confusion, looking to his mentor then to the armour once more.

"That ol' thing? Nah, I can take care of meself. You on the other hand are gonna be facin' a whole lot more dangerous stuff, and this will keep yer safer than anythin' else. Even Dark Eco can't penetrate that thing, since those Precursors seemed to know what they were doin' when they made this stuff. Go ahead an' put it on, while I find yer other present," Yellow Sage mumbled, feeling over his other pockets. Egeus did as he was told and strapped on the chest plate on top of his yellow vest, suddenly feeling all that more protected with it over his heart, as if he had been naked before hand. His revere of the amazing piece of armour was snapped when the Sage hollered gleefully, fishing out of his pocket what seemed to be a necklace, which he handed to Egeus. Adorning the necklace was a crystal brimming with the energy of Yellow Eco.

"Now, this is somethin' I've been savin' for this day. Somehow it was tucked inside yer blankets, and figurin' you woulda broke the darn thing being just a kid, I took it off yer hands for a bit. I'm not quite sure what the purpose o' this thing is, but when I hold it I can feel some sort of great energy inside of it. If you were to crush it, you'd definitely be given a huge burst o' Yeller Eco fer sure, but I wouldn't do that if I were you unless it was a huge emergency. Try an' find out what this thing really does, alright?"

Putting on the necklace and shoving it down his shirt, Egeus nodded at his mentor and pulled down his goggles once more. Without waiting to be told, he revved the engine, and sped off in a haze of smoke, leaving the whooping Sage behind him.

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Zorna watched as the red tinged blade shone in the light, doing a double take when with a flick of the wrist the blade extended out to a full length sword, then back into the dagger once more. She knew her father was a great smith, but she didn't think he was _that_ good. "Zorna, this blade was made specifically for you. It was created with the strongest Precursor metal I could find, and infused with highly concentrated Red Eco. It could theoretically pierce anything, and easily parry off anything that it couldn't cut. It is…the pinnacle of all my work. But, heed this; it is not intended for you to use to start fights with. In fact, if blood never touched that blade, I would indeed be very happy. Promise me this, Zorna. Promise me that you will only ever use it in self defence, when no other route out can be taken."

"I…I promise, father," Zorna replied uncharacteristically quiet, taking the dagger into her hands. It felt right against her skin, warming her up. The feeling of power was definitely there, and it was quite tempting to test out just what it could do. Still, she reigned in her impulses, buckling on the belt and sheath the Sage offered to her, and then slid the blade into its new home.

"Take care out there, Zorna. The world is big and full of many dangers, but I believe in you. Be on the look out for items of interest, and strive to see the entire world before going back to the Citadel. I hope to see you soon," he finished, his voice making a strange little crack at the end. The Red Sage was an emotional man, but never before had Zorna seen him cry. She had no plans to learn of this image, and with a sharp nod and turn, she left the hut, pulling on her goggles, then ran, over the bridge and to the mining carts, till she was out of ear shot of the hut.


	7. And So It Begins

**Update, yayayayay. I like having downloaded the spell check thing for Firefox, it makes that last spell checking work easier. Also, never trust Word with grammar stuff. It never picks up the things that don't make sense at all. In regards to Zorna's plan, you may be thinking, 'why didn't they just jump over it?' Well, in reality, the force fields are actually just as tall as Jak is, and last time I checked, it's not possible to jump your own height in the snow. Anyway, read, and review, please and thank you. I'd also like to do a little shout out to Helen .With .A.T, my ever faithful work checker, my male companion Ben for taking the time of reading this and giving his own input on how I can improve, and MikaHaeli8 for being a faithful reviewer. Please check out her story, 'Deny Thy Father and Refuse Thy Name', which can also be found in the Jak and Daxter section. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and all of it's characters belongs to Naughty Dog, so yeah. All out of game characters are mine, though. :3  
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I remember counting the same rocky stalactite passing over head twenty three times before I decided to get off the safety of the mining cart. For some reason, in a sort of babyish way, I found it comforting to curl up in the cart and watch the world go by as it did its long winding circles between the entrance of the Spider Cave, the start of the bridge leading to the Red Sage's Hut, and the mouth of the Lava Tube. Once I got out of the mining cart, I figured my journey really would begin. That I really wouldn't just be out doing another job for Reddy.

With a practised ease, I hauled myself out of the cart just as it passed the rocky platform leading to the Lava Tube. I had never really been down this way before, so it seemed new, in a way. There wasn't much to do down that way anyway, other than start the long track down to what apparently was the Yellow Sage's home and the mystical Citadel that Red-Red kept going on about. Honestly, I was just tempted to go down there myself and get the Yellow Sage over and done with, as well as suss out what the Citadel was like, but my father had taken steps to prevent that. My Zoomer was docked at the Mountain Pass, apparently. I would have changed the dock's setting so the Zoomer was teleported to the Lava Tube dock, but no, I was never allowed up to see the Pass, which was stupid, in my opinion. Why not get at least a glimpse of what I was supposed to get through?

My step temporarily quickened as I stumbled down the sharp decline leading to 'water's edge'. Except this was no normal water. This was the sort of water which would disintegrate your clothes and first few layers of skin just as you were but just centimetres away from the surface of the long vein of lava. Luckily for us Northerners, we were born with a natural resistance to the heat, and our clothes were made of the most flammable resistant cloth around. Even still, we always remembered to play it safe around the lava. How those Southern pansies planned to get through I'll never know.

I reached the main docking station for the Lava Tube, finding myself alone. Obviously, the slow poke was still making his was through the Tube. It made we wander how tough it was exactly. I had to admit, I certainly was no expert at riding an AGrav Zoomer. I thanked the Precursors that it was the last place I had to navigate.

I paced around for a bit, arms crossed. I never was a good waiter. I liked things to go at my pace. I wanted things to happen now. After a few more laps of the area, and a frustrated sigh, I sat down on a flat rock abruptly, and began to scuff the toe of my boot against the ground. Letting loose another sigh, I began drawing my name into the fine dirt that blanketed the floor in the blocky, Precursors letters we were all taught to write in. Honestly, I found them rather ugly, and for the most part they all looked the same. You had to learn the language young; otherwise it was nearly impossible to get a good grip on the text.

A few more minutes passed by, and I gave into the temptation of playing around with my present. Slipping the red dagger out of its sheath, I examined in the dull light the lava gave off, appreciating the way it shone so flawlessly. It felt nice in my hands, all warm and strong. I think I could almost feel the pulses of Red Eco through the blade. Mimicking the action Rage, (what Red and Sage put together would be. I thought it was rather clever, but Reddles maintained that it didn't suit him at all) made to extend the blade out further, I flicked my wrist outwards, but to no avail. I frowned slightly and tried again, but it refused to come out. I tried multiple times in succession, giving a little whine of frustration when it still wouldn't yield to me. I felt a pout come over my face as I cursed at it mentally, pointing the blade tip to the ground, giving it another shake. Apparently, my grip must have moved slightly for I felt a switch give in against my fingers, and the full length blade came whizzing out, shaving off a thin slice of the grip of my boot then wedging itself cleanly into the ground. _He was right; it is super sharp!_ I thought to myself, gingerly moving my foot away from the blade. Had it been on another angle, my journey could have been halted already.

In the distance, over the ever present rumble and bubble of the lava moving through rock in the area, I could hear a low, grumbly humming, marking the arrival of Egeus, the guy from down the Tube. Carefully retracting the blade, I stood up, ready to greet him, one hand on hip, the other on grip. "Finally!" I yelled out to him as he quickly made his way over the last stretch of lava, throwing the dagger up into the air, and some how taking the catch perfectly. On the inside, I felt my stomach heave with relief, but on the outside, I probably looked like the coolest damn person he'd ever seen in his life.

I stood back to allow him to dock and dismount his Zoomer properly, and change the setting on it so the Zoomer suddenly blinked out of sight, teleported to the nearest Zoomer dock which was at the Mountain Pass in this case. As I slid the dagger into my hip sheath, he lumbered over, smelling somewhat burnt. It must have been a tough ride through there. Under his goggles I could see the bare skin on his face had turned a very vivid pink, and had begun to flake, no thanks to the boiling hot air in there. He held out his gloved hand and mumbled a greeting from underneath the scarf which he had used to protect his mouth.

"How about you take off the scarf and goggles before you go about greeting me, huh? I would like to see who this great Egeus is, you know," I said pointedly, shifting my weight onto my other leg as I gestured to his face. The young man, surely around my age but a whole heck of a lot taller, nodded his head obediently and pulled the goggles and scarf off to reveal golden hazel eyes and his thin mouth. It became apparent that he was also quite tanned, which struck me as odd, since there was no natural sunlight down there.

Egeus offered his hand again, using the other to scratch the back of his head in a sort of nervous way. I took the offer and shook his hand firmly. "Nice to finally meet you in person. I'm Zorna, daughter of the Red Sage. Took you long enough to get up here!" I complained, but gave it away when a silly grin filled my face. My heart was beating faster, and I could feel my own cheeks warm up. Was it excitement from meeting someone of my own age, or was the heat just getting to me?

"Nice to meet you, er…Zorna," Egeus replied, stumbling over his words a bit. "you know my name already, and yeah, I'm the son of the Yellow Sage. I'm sorry if it took me awhile, there seemed to be a little construction going on down there, which was kinda odd considering no one really ventures into the Tube often, so I had to get around all of those things which was sort of-"

"Well that's alright. Let's just go up to the hut so you can have a chat with Reddish, and then we can get on with our journey through the Mountain Pass!" I said rather quickly, taking my hand away from the sake and turning, marching up the slope. Egeus stood there for a moment looking dumbfounded, before he quickly jogged up next to me, matching me pace for pace. From what it looked like he didn't seem like one to start a conversation, which suited me fine. The more he listened to what I had to say and the less arguing back he did the better.

We reached the mine carts in less than a minute, and had to wait there for a few moments for another cart to come around. In this time, Egeus was busy beholding the place, as if it were some kind of heaven. I gave him a sidewards glance, a somewhat proud smile poking at my lips. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"I-I've never seen such a big place…the smell is kinda strong, but there looks like there is so much to do…" he mumbled, wide eyes searching over the scenery. I shook my head briefly, and spotting that one of the carts was now adjacent to the platform we were standing on, made the leap into it. I watched as Egeus did a double take as I slowly trundled away from him, and couldn't help but give a wave cheekily. The oaf waved back, before yelling, "What am I supposed to do?"

"Jump into the next cart! Make sure it's a big leap; if you fall, you won't be getting back up again!" I called back, sitting down into the cart to watch the scene unfold.

Egeus licked his lips and looked up the track to the next cart. I could see him mentally counting out how long it would take till it reached him, beginning to take a step back to ready himself for the leap. But too late! The cart had unexpectedly sped up and was passing him. The look on his face was priceless, but any giggles I was ready to have were extinguished as I saw him leap after it. A large rock blocked my view for a few heart pounding moments, as I expected to hear an agonised yell and a hiss from the lava. I peered over the side of my cart into the hot pool below, looking around frantically for him. Surely I wouldn't be forgiven for letting him fall!

"EGEUS!" I called out into the fiery pit, gripping the rusty edge of the cart anxiously. There still was no sign of him.

"I'm over here!"

I looked up the track; my whole body slumping with relief as I spotted the large yellow bundle crammed into the small metal container, limbs hanging out precariously.

Once we had both safely made it onto the rocky stack which held up one side of the bridge, a bridge which led to safety, I turned on him. "What the HELL do you think you're doing? You could have killed yourself! You should have waited for the next fucking cart, not gone after that one!" I ranted, throwing my hands up into the air. I watched with satisfaction as he shrunk back, flinching at my cuss. I was quite surprised myself; I only ever really swore when I was by myself and I'd fallen or cut myself.

"I-I'm sorry, I really am…I didn't mean to worry you! I just didn't want to be left behind!" he cried back at me, hurt filling his eyes. As much as I wanted to keep going off at him for his stupid move, I could see he was also quite genuinely upset, and was now well under my command. Seeing that hurt also sort of softened something up in me, and I found my hands dropping to my sides, and my stance become less aggressive. He straightened up slowly, but he kept his head bowed, as if he didn't want to look me in the eye again. An awkward silence fell over us, leaving both of us to mull over what had happened. I thought I could feel guilt radiating out of him, which in a way annoyed me. I was the one who went off at him, after all.

"Look, I'm sorry. You just had me worried. Next time, just wait, is all I'm saying, okay?" I explained to him patiently, trying to give him a kind smile to make him feel better, if any. Egeus nodded, keeping his head down, as if he were a five year old who had just been told off. I sighed and began to make my way over the bridge, hoping he would just follow me and we could make it through the rest of the day without hitch. He did as I hoped he would, and I led him to the front of the hut, and stood to the side so he could get through. "Just head on in there. He's a nice, gentle old man, he won't bite. I'd come in too, but I'm banned from going there again until we all manage to get to the Citadel," I explained, to which he nodded yet again. Obviously, he'd never been told off before, and it was really getting to him.

It seemed to take only a half a minute before Egeus was out again, now looking more confused than hurt. "Er…there's no one in there," he said slowly, scratching his head, out of what seemed to me like compulsive behaviour. I simply nodded. It wasn't odd for Old Red to pop out every now and then to go check on something. "Whelp, we'll just have to wait here, then," I said with a sigh, leaning back on the hut's metallic wall. Again, another silence fell over us. Both of us avoided eye contact as we both performed our own little habits, like his head scratching and my toe tapping. This carried on for several minutes until surprisingly, Egeus spoke up.

"I…I read about the mountains that are supposed to be above the crater, and how it snows all the time. Snow sounds really beautiful," he began slowly, turning to look at me. I ignored his look and continued looking out into space. I could see where this was going.

"Err…apparently the Red Sage, your father, set up a sort of lift to get up there."

"He did."

"Oh. Uhm…yeah. I've always wanted to see the snow…"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. If that was what he called 'subtle hinting', I didn't know what I was going to do with him.

"You want to go up there? It's pretty dangerous, and all. I've heard there's those dangerous snow Lurkers, which will rip you limb from limb. Lots of dangerous Precursor crap up there too…" I trailed off, turning to look at him. This was going to be a test to see if he was both cowardly AND stupid.

"Huh. Well…if you don't want to go up there, I suppose we don't have to. Dangerous and all." I felt a frown settling on my face once more, and the anger rise. He was so complacent with everything, and the way he implied that _I_ didn't want to go up there, like _I _was afraid. Well, I certainly wasn't afraid. I was just more…uncertain, of what I was going to find up there, which I didn't like. But still, the challenge had bee unwittingly been laid down, and I was going to answer it.

"No no no, its fine, we can go up there. I was just thinking about you, is all, after your long journey through the Lava Tube, I thought you might be a little worn out. But if you're up to it, we'll go, for sure," I replied in my best nonchalant voice, getting up from my leaning. His face lit up for the first time during the period I had been with him, if only slightly, and he gave me a warm smile, which made that same thing inside me melt again. I think I was developing a soft spot for the gentle giant already.

And so, we both managed to cram ourselves onto the one-man gondola, and began our ascent upwards. Whilst it would have been safer for us to go up one at a time, I really didn't want to waste time. Still, it was there, squished up against Egeus, that I really got a good look at him. He had lovely golden hazel eyes like I ha mentioned before, much nicer than my greeny hazel. In those eyes there was a lot of emotion, like almost he spoke what he left unsaid through them. He had wild black hair which he left loose like mine, except without bangs. His skin was also quite dark, a nice olive colour, where as mine was quite pale. His honest, quiet smile was also quite a draw point, and from what was running through my mind, I was showing early symptoms of a crush. Mind you, I could tell he was doing the same observing of me, so, I thought it was safe to say it was just that natural interest in finally seeing someone else like you.

It was when we started getting up to the higher parts of the cliffs that I felt the need to look down. What a mistake. The lava below just seemed like a small red pool, with the hut simply a big black blob in the middle of it, and I was made uncomfortably aware of the lack of safety rails, and how we were swaying so much in the freezing cold wind. My body was tensing, and my fingers curled into Egeus' top, a frantic smile spreading on my face. "Hey, you know what? I've never been high up before. Isn't it great to be so high up? You can see everything from here. I don't know why I haven't tried this before. No, really. This is lovely. Really, really, really lovely."

Egeus took this chance to look down as well, and instantly I could see his pupils contract into a tiny size, his burnt cheek paling. We were now clinging onto each other for dear life. "I agree with you, Zorna. It's…uhm…nice. Lots of fresh air," he replied, trying to sound as convincing as possible. I looked at him seriously, the smile disappearing from my face.

"I'm scared shitless."

"So am I."

So, for the rest of the agonisingly slow journey upwards, we simply gripped onto each other's arms, shivering every now and then from the cold. It was a strange feeling, being cold, when most of your life you've been surrounded by boiling hot lava. Going from one extreme to another was making me feel somewhat faint. Egeus too was feeling the cold, and I good see his breath fog up each time he breathed out. Seeing some fun in that, I breathed out as hard and for as long as I could, looking in satisfaction as a huge steam cloud flew up past my partner's face and up into the atmosphere. This prompted him to breathe back at me in a sort of reserved, but playful way, like he wasn't quite sure whether he was in the sort of good books that allowed him to do so. With a bit of a laugh, at both his nature and just for the sake of it, I breathed back at him. This continued on until the gondola stopped at the top of it's pulley's, and we both tumbled out onto the snow, laughing.

The laughs quickly turned into sharp breaths in and small, under the breath repetitions of 'cold'. I had sunk into knee deep snow, and already I could feel the cold wetness melting in against my legs, much to my disgust. Egeus on the other hand, seemed to be in awe of how cold it was, and how much there was of the horrid stuff. He wasn't nearly as bogged down in the snow as I was and found it easy to walk around, picking up clumps in his hands, only to let the flakes slip through his fingers. Annoyed at my abandonment, I scooped up a clump of snow myself and compressed it into a ball. With a glare, I took aim at the centre of his back, and let loose my snow ball. He yelped as it hit him square in the back, and he was quick to turn around to see who had did it to him; this resulted in another snow ball to the chest. "Can you help me out, please? In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a giant like you!" A mean tone managed to creep into my voice there, and Egeus was quick to pull me out of my spot and lift me over to a new, shallower spot.

"Thank you. Now…what exactly did you want to do here?" I asked, surveying the land before me, hands on hips. Way ahead of us seemed to be an icy tunnel, and before that there was the start of what I assumed to be a steep hill. In the area we were presently in, there was a strange Precursor contraption which looked like a stump, only it was surrounded by a glowing force field of some type. If we were to ignore that completely and keep heading on forwards, we'd have to be careful of a sudden drop, and leap across that to get to the more interesting part. Considering Egeus' previous acrobatics, I had no fear that he wouldn't be able to get across the pit.

Egeus, for the time being, seemed to be preoccupied with the Precursor stump, and how the force field repelled his hand each time he reached forward. I managed to wade over to him through the snow to get a better look at the weird thing. Upon closer inspection, the top the stump seemed to be one huge button. But how were we to press it?

"Egeus, you're a strong guy, right? Would you mind letting me on your shoulders?" I asked in the sweetest voice I could, giving the taller man a small smile.

"Er…why?" he asked at first, then slowly realisation came over him. "You're going to try and get to it from above?"

I nodded. "Mhm. Now, let's get me up there!"

With a bit of fiddling and a few grunts of pain, I managed to climb up into a standing position on his shoulders, with him holding onto my now damp trouser legs. "Now, on a count of three, you spring up and get me a boost so I can clear the force field, okay?" I called down from him, keeping my arms outstretched to keep myself balanced. He made a sort of noise which I associated with a positive answer, and so I started counting.

"One!" He began to bend down, his legs giving a bit of a wobble.

"Two!" He was fully crouched now, all his body now quivering.

"Three!"

As Egeus pushed himself up, I jumped, thrusting myself right into the cold, frigid air. And for a moment, I doubted my plan. Getting up was alright; landing directly on the button was another. I gave a bit of a squeal as I began to descend, and brought myself into a pin position, squeezing my eyes tightly closed, waiting for one of my legs to hit the surface and possibly shatter as all my weight fell onto it, and the other to completely miss, resulting in an amazing fall for me. But thankfully, the pain never came. Instead, I felt both of my feet meet the firm something I was wishing for. Opening one of my eyes, I looked down, and saw, that indeed, I had landed the jump perfectly.

It was my mistake to relax, and let my full weight down onto the button, for as soon as I did, it sunk down back into its console with a foreboding clunk, and the force field around it faded away.

Egeus gave me the thumbs up and approached in closer to the artefact, but I felt like something wasn't quite right. "You're pretty talented with jumping sort of stuff. Like before, when you made the jump perfectly into the mining cart with ease," he complimented, giving me one of his warm smiles. I could help but feel a little proud, even if the praise was coming from him, and there was a heavy worry pressing down on my shoulders.

"Oh really, that was nothing," I said with a sniff, waving him off. I did a little jump down from my perch, but was quick to scramble back on top of it again as the ground begun violently shaking. Torrents of snow began cascading down from the large rock formations above us, quickly filling the area with an even thicker layer of snow, which caused Egeus to also climb up onto the Precursor stump. Room on that thing suddenly became a rare premium.

Then, from below the depths of the snow, we heard an ominous roar.

"Oh God," I whispered. "Not them."


	8. The Pursuit of Truth

**Update...two days in a row? Like, woah, guiiiseee. Anyway, yeah. The weekend is good to me, so I can spew out more updates than during the working week. Probably will be able to get one out tomorrow as well, if all goes to plan. A change of scene, a bit of foreshadowing, the normal drill. Poor Raine, being pushed around. But soon he'll get to act as his full potential, and not just be a meanie head, yay. Jak an Daxter: the Precursor Legacy and all of it's characters belong to those gnarly dudes at Naughty Dog, man. They're all balls to the wall with the way they come up with all this stuff that's off the Richter. Hah, anywho, please, read and review. I love reviews. They make me happy on the inside. :D**

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It was different seeing that place during the day. It seemed much less provocative and shady. It actually almost seemed welcoming, the way the golden brown rocks seemed to glow in the strong sunlight, as if it were a gate way to paradise. However, I knew there was no such thing as paradise on earth as it was then. It was just impossible, with the way humans went about things.

Docking my Zoomer, I pulled off my blue tinted goggles, and took the chance to breathe in the salty sea air which was whistling through the canyon. It reminded me of my old home, which was also a coastal colony. But this smell seemed brighter, if that was an applicable adjective for a smell. Brighter, more tropical. It certainly was a nice smell to be greeted with. I dismounted my Zoomer and untied my pack from the back of it, and swung it over my shoulder, threading my arms through the straps. Olethea was meant to meet me there, but for whatever reason, she was being held up. Seeing no reason to wait around, I decided to do a little exploring for myself.

As I came to the top of what I presumed to be natural stairs, I found myself taken by the natural beauty of the place. A quaint little hut was directly below me to the right, with a bright yellow straw thatched roof. To the left were the brown bodies of the gentle Yakows, whose wickedly long horns pierced up into the air. Surrounding them was beautiful, golden sand, acting as a sort of crown for the sparkling blue ocean and the stacks it contained. Following these natural wonders, I spotted my second Precursor statue.

It's large, owl like head was impossible to miss. They were scattered around the earth, and if a village was to house one, they were considered eternally lucky. Whilst they never moved, and appeared to be made completely out of that golden metal the Precursors were famous for using, they actually appeared to be sentient beings, every so often breaking out into speech. More often than not when someone with a large amount of Precursor Orbs came past. I was always quite interested in them and the way they worked, and after my father's parting speech…it seemed as if I, if not all of the offspring of the Sages, had a certain connection to them, which deepened the mystery considerably.

I was honestly quite tempted to navigate my way over the platforms and investigate the monolith myself, but I supposed that I really should've channelled those efforts into discovering where Olethea was. She wasn't one to not heed a pre-set schedule. I made my way down onto the beach, wriggling my toes as my bound feet hit the warm sand. The way the sun caressed my bare arms was a wonderful feeling. I felt as if I could just lay down where I was and have a short power nap to catch up on the sleep I had lost from the antics of the night before, but a rather large snore alerted me to the presence of another.

My eyes fell on the small old man with his impossibly huge hat, who was quite contentedly dozing in the mid-day sun. By the looks of his staff, he was the owner of the Yakows. If he were anything to go by, it would seem the village was going to be rather uneventful indeed.

As I walked past a small house which was emanating the cries of many birds, some of which I could recognise, I spotted a red headed girl in a long green tunic walking down a hanging bridge from up ahead. She was flanked by a male her age, with bright blonde hair, which sported the exact same messy nature and my own and the girl's. On his shoulder was what seemed to be an orange creature of sorts. My own pet, the blue Muse, began rummaging around in my pack, obviously waking up from its nap. I decided to wait for the group where I was, putting down my pack. As soon as I opened up the top of it, my Muse jumped out, making a perch for itself on my shoulder. A smile worked its way onto my face as it again nuzzled up against my face, making little chatters, whilst it's long tail wrapped around my neck gently for support.

As I straightened up, the young man and woman made their way up to me. The woman must have been Olethea, whilst the man Jak. For some reason, he looked quite familiar, but I couldn't work out why until I looked down at his tunic. It was the same colour as mine, and I realised it was to him that I had lent some of my own clothes to. The Green Sage, Samos, had contacted the Blue Sage, complaining that Jak had grown out of all of his clothes, and needed some bigger ones, so he was given mine. That prompted my first journey down Fire Canyon, where I had taken down some larger sizes of my own tunic, and he had come to take them, looking rather embarrassed in his tight fitting shirt.

To my surprise, the animal on Jak's shoulder was the first to speak. "Hey, who's this guy? I've never seen him around these parts before!" It said, sounding somewhat annoyed. I looked to the two humans, frowning slightly.

"I've never heard of an animal who could communicate with humans so clearly. Has the Green Sage been conducting experiments?" I asked coolly, watching as my Muse jumped off my shoulder and began to investigate the new people, sniffing around their feet. When it climbed up Jak to observe the orange rat, the thing growled at it, and pushed the sparkling blue creature off. "And what's the Blue Sage been doing, dunking rats in blue glitter to make 'em pretty?" The orange rat snapped back, Muse returning back to my shoulder.

I chose to ignore the rude creature, and instead focussed my attentions on the other two. "How rude of me, I completely forgot to introduce myself. I'm Raine, the son of the Blue Sage from Rock Village. We've already briefly met before, Jak, I'm sure you remember. And you must be Olethea, daughter of Samos the Green Sage, yes?" I asked, giving them both a short bow. Jak almost returned the gesture, but his rat slapped him over the head. "You're forgettin' someone, Grey Hair. I'm the Great Daxter, leader of this here party. So, why don't you just get on your way and-"

"Leader?" I mused, a smirk coming over my face. "Leader of what?"

"Well, a trip North of course, to go find Gol, so he can change me back. I used to be a human, ya know. I pretty damn fine one, at that!"

"North? You two?" I gave a bit of a laugh. "Oh dear, Olethea, I knew that the people around here were a little slow, but I didn't think they were outright stupid!"

The girl looked away awkwardly, as Daxter jumped down from Jak's shoulder. "Excuse me? Did I just hear you call ME stupid? I could understand in Jak's case, but ME? I am the next freakin' Einstein, thank you very much, so you better apologise right now!" he yelled threateningly, standing his ground. I sniffed. How could I apologise to someone who compared himself to someone who didn't exist?

"Anyway, I was saying that everyone in their right mind knows that only those chosen by the Precursors, with blood of the highest degree can make the journey down to the Citadel. I honestly don't believe a rat and a mute boy fit that requirement," I said coldly, no kindness in my eyes. "Olethea and I must be going now, so if you'll excuse us…"

I nodded to the two other males, and then began on my way through the village, Olethea soon following, ignoring the disgruntled cries from Daxter.

"Hey! Old Green Stump said we had to! We don't even want to travel with you losers anyway! Let's go, Jak!" Daxter snapped. I looked back over my shoulder to see Jak looking forlornly after us, only to be urged on by Daxter to forget about it. With a bit of a sigh, he slowly walked away, down to another section of beach I had not yet traversed.

Olethea and I, on the other hand, went up to the Green Sage's hut in silence. I think she was taken aback by my harsh words. "It had to be done. You didn't really want those two clowns following us around, did you?" I asked gently, stopping to look her in the eye. She nodded slowly, her bright green eyes every so often darting up to look into mine. She was a rather pretty girl, with a heart shaped face, even toned skin, slender ears and shiny hair, but I certainly wasn't looking for that sort of relationship with anyone. Kids would be a nuisance when I was a Sage, in my opinion. "It's just…" she murmured quietly in her sort of melodic voice. "…I'm not sure how Samos will take it."

"The Green Sage? He knows more so than anyone that what I said is true. Why in the world would he be upset?" I continued walking; now passing over the hanging bridge which led up to a rather large house. It smelt quite strongly of oil and Green Eco, two very conflicting smells.

"He was the one who suggested that they tag along," Olethea replied, trailing along behind me. She talked as if it was almost an effort, which was a pity, considering she had quite a nice voice to listen to. But this was a startling revelation. It was heavily implied that the journey was made solely by those going under apprenticeship, to test them. Why would he send those two along? Yes, Gol was obviously going to be a huge bank of information they could use to turn that Daxter character back into a human, if what he said was indeed the truth, but couldn't Samos just send a message through to the Yellow Sage via the other Sages to turn his Warp Gate on, so they could just go the easy way?

We soon found ourselves under the hut's shadow. We were actually in front of a sort of sub level of the hut, which appeared to be a mechanic's shed. Sure enough, another girl, who appeared to be a few years younger than myself and Olethea, wheeled herself out from under a Zoomer, giving us a wide grin.

"Hey, you two!" she called out, a noticeable rasp underlying her words. She got up and brushed herself down, trotting over to where we stood. "You must be the guy who came from Rock Village, right?" she asked me brightly, tilting her head as she looked over my person. I nodded, looking upwards to the main floor. I didn't have much time to waste here. "Well, you must be looking for Daddy. He's just up there, ready to talk to you. Just knock first, he's not in a very good mood!" the girl warned, returning back to the Zoomer she was working. I looked to Olethea, raising my eyebrow.

"Keira, my sister," she explained shortly, coming to rest on the large open door frame of the garage. I nodded, and slowly began making my way up the ramp to the main floor of the hut, taking this as my cue to go on alone. So many questions were now buzzing around my head. What was our relationship with the Precursor Statues? Why were Jak and Daxter sent on the journey North? If Keira was a daughter of the Green Sage as well, then why wasn't she being sent out to be an apprentice? Most of these questions could be answered right now by the Green Sage, if I played my cards right.

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For the first time in my life, I actually felt scared of someone. I stumbled out of the Green Sage's hut with my tail between my legs, Muse hiding in my shirt. At first, everything had gone fine, with him welcoming me, asking me to sit down, then talking for a little while on the matters of searching for the truth, which I related with quite well. When I began to question him on the matter of Jak and Daxter, his mood seemed to descend, and his gravely voice began to rise as I pushed on further about why they shouldn't be making the journey. A long story short, by the end of it, he was abusing me with his staff, and his rather large carnivorous plant tried to eat my Muse. As I retreated away, he hollered after me, "And take these with you, you intolerable, stuck up child!" For a moment I was wandering what he was going on about, but then it hit me.

Quite literally.

A pair of leg guards, made from the precious Precursor metal, hit me in the face, sending me sprawling backwards. I teetered dangerously on the edge of the ledge in front of the main part of the hut, the armour blocking out my vision. I would have regained my balance if it weren't for Muse digging its claws into my chest, which made me writhe.

The fall was quick; hitting the ground even quicker. I groaned with pain, feeling winded. Two worried faces soon appeared over mine, and hands were helping me up. "I told you he was in a bad mood!" the girl called Keira fussed, brushing off my back. Olethea retrieved my leg guards and began buckling them on for me wordlessly, which was kind of her, but I disliked being babied in such a way. "What did he say?" the older girl asked, tightening up the straps.

"That we're going to have to find them. Jak and Daxter, that is," I said rather breathlessly, patting around in my shirt for my Muse, ready to tell it off. It wriggled itself up, and gave my face an apologetic lick. I couldn't stay angry at that darned thing. It was Olethea's turn to raise her eye brow at me. "The same two you snubbed?" I think I heard a tone of smugness, something I didn't expect from her.

"Yes, the very same," I replied, standing myself up. I honestly held my pride as something extremely important to me, and now to be grovelling before those two was something that I wouldn't be able to stand. Still, I was sure that I would be able to find a use for the two fools in any case.

Out of the corner of my eye I watched Keira mouth 'good luck' to her sister, before she returned back to her machines. Olethea was now the one leading, as if she had a confidence boost in watching me be given my place. This irked me slightly, but for the time being, I was just going to observe her, and get ready to pounce at the very first sign of weakness.

I found myself being lead down the path to another, wider beach. As we passed under a large arch, Olethea gave a name to the place. "Sentinel Beach" it was called. I supposed it was given the name because of the broken lighthouse which was located just off shore. "They often come here to play, and train," Olethea explained, walking along quite causally. "It's a nice place; plenty to do. Watch out for Lurkers, though. They've taken over the place quite recently." This was the greatest amount of words I'd ever heard her say in one hit. Perhaps it was because she looked more comfortable in her position, like something she had been wondering about had been confirmed. At the time, I wasn't quite sure whether letting her have this comfort was a good thing, in case she became head strong, but for the time being I let it go.

"Lurkers, you say? That's strange…a large Lurker behemoth has been plaguing my village for quite some time. I thought the smaller ones just kept to themselves, underground."

"Not lately. They've been coming out in numbers. I think they might be looking for something. For someone. When I've fought them-"

"You've actually engaged in fighting?" This surprised me. Whilst she was a rather strong looking girl, I hadn't thought she would be the type who would commit acts of violence.

"Yes. We have to, to keep them from hurting people who wouldn't be able to fight them off," she explained, slowing down to now walk next to me. "Anyway, as I was saying, when I've seen them up close, they've been wearing collars. Sort of like…they're slaves."

Someone controlling the Lurkers? It was a good idea, I supposed, considering how strong they were allegedly, but it was still a heinous act. Whilst I did have some unconventional ideas, I did know right from wrong and had a strong sense of justice. The mastermind had to be stopped.

We continued on until large grey buildings came into sight. Three of them dotted along the beach, and each looked fairly decrepit. I had no doubt that they used to be apart of something quite a bit larger. It was here we found the two, chasing seagulls. This behaviour struck me as childish, but then again, didn't surprise me. We waited for the two to return up the beach before I called out to them, waving a hand in the air. Now all there was left to do was turn on my irresistible charm.

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Half an hour later, we all sat by the sea, letting the water run over our bare feet. Muse was curled up contentedly in my lap, happy to catch some nice sun rays. It wasn't hard to earn the forgiveness of the other pair; I just acted genuinely sorry, I blamed it on my lack of sleep. "Say no more, my friend," Daxter had said in a rather sleazy voice, "big night on the town with a lovely lady? I understand completely." How I was going to have a large night on a town which didn't exist, with the only woman in my area at least ten years my senior, I wasn't sure. Despite that, I just kept acting amiable, and they were soon putty in my hands. I had learnt quite a lot about them; how they had lived in Sandover their entire lives, being best friends, their odd antics, and Daxter's inexhaustible reservoir from which he could keep finding things to talk about. I believed he was just so used to doing most of the talking, since both Jak and Olethea barely spoke a word.

In one of those rare pauses in Daxter's speech, I chose to bring up a topic which had now been nagging at me greatly. "So, the Lurkers…they've been popping up quite a bit recently, have they?"

"Oh yeah. There was a whole bunch of them on Misty Island last night. You shoulda seen them; there must have been hundreds, right Jak?" Daxter asked, but apparently he wasn't about to wait for his answer. "They were all listenin' to these two floaty people. Didn't really get a good look at 'em though, since it was so dark. They certainly weren't anyone from around here, that's for sure. They both had long blonde hair, and dark lookin' skin. The girl was actually pretty hot. Had this massive-"

Jak smacked him over the head in warning. Obviously he was used to the way Daxter talked, and made sure to keep him from something that may have offended others.

"Anyway, what was I sayin'? Oh yeah, and they were tellin' the Lurkers to go find more Precursor junk, and somethin' about attacking the village! They also seemed pretty obsessed with that Dark Eco stuff. I dunno why though, I mean, just look what it did to me!"

What Daxter had revealed worried me. Though it was not so much the attack on the village; it would be well protected by its resident Sage. The fact that the Lurker's were indeed working for a higher power was indeed disturbing. From what I knew of Lurkers, they had no use for the upper world currency of Precursor Orbs, so they must have had other motivations. Perhaps they were promised a place of power once the masterminds had gotten their way? It was possible, but I believed there was probably more to it than that, especially if Precursor artefacts were concerned. Whilst they were extremely useful for society, and should've been used more often, they were also very dangerous when used in such a manner. Mixing Dark Eco with something of the Precursors' was again an even more dangerous activity, especially since these two villains seemed to be planning something nefarious.

I thought to whom it may be who was planning all this. It certainly wasn't anyone from Rock Village; there were no blondes there, nor any couples, or brothers or sisters. If it were someone from around here, which it was extremely unlikely due to the nature of the people, the other two would have recognised them. That only left the people from the North. If Gol found out what these people were doing, he would surely be appalled. He had undertaken the scientific way of studying Dark Eco, and the Precursor artefacts which littered our world.

But then again, the dark skin, the male and female, the want for Dark Eco and the Precursor items…I tried to put the thought out of my mind, but there was just no way of disproving it.

I just hopped Zorna and her dunce friend knew just what kind of trouble they could be in.


	9. The Cold Reality

**Three updates over three days! Wooo! And didn't you guys think it was a slow start? Now we're really getting into things, and there is so much more to reveal! Ehehe. Well, one day we'll get though all of it. It's Egeus' turn to narrate events. He's a sweet boy, and I enjoy writing out his character quite a bit. Whilst he might be a bit slow at times, he certainly isn't stupid, and has an amazing heart. Next update might be tomorrow, or the day after that, depending on what I get done tonight. Tomorrow would be good, though. As always, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and all its characters belongs to Naughty Dog. So, read and review. If anyone else other than Mika decides to review, I think I'll be very happy indeed. Please, guys? 3:**

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Everything happened so suddenly, I wasn't sure what was going on. First, the ground was shaking violently. Then, it seemed to erupt, snow flying everywhere, a lot of it caking my body. Loud roaring filled my ears, as well grunts and snuffles. Then there seemed to be a whole writhing pool of blue and white bodies surrounding us, their wide yellow eyes spinning wildly in their sockets. Before I even had time to open my mouth to yell a warning, one of the creatures leaped up, roughly tackling Zorna to the ground with a triumphant howl.

Before I even had a chance to think about what I was doing, I was leaping down onto the monster myself.

I could hear Zorna screaming for help under the beast. I could only imagine how horrible it'd be, being pinned under the large animal, snow slowly suffocating her as clawed paws shook her around like a doll. It made me angry to think that anyone would want to hurt her, especially when she hadn't done anything wrong, so I began taking it out on the monster.

With all my strength I pulled the animal back off of her, my arms getting around it's neck in a headlock. It howled angrily, trying it bite at my arms, whilst I used my upper body to swing it around off of Zorna, and began pounding it into the snow. I ripped at it long mane, jammed my knees into its back, anything that would make it feel pain. Zorna, on the other hand, shakily rose out of the snow, and began wading away as fast as she could.

"Wait!" I yelled after, only to be crushed under another being. It began pummelling my head in, and others began surrounding me, pouncing on my open sides. I looked to my right, screaming and yelling for her to come back, but soon my vision was obscured by blood. I tried my best to throw them off, but the weight was too much. It even felt like my chest was being crushed into itself. Breathing became harder, and I began to loose all feeling in my body as my head started to feel all light, like it was floating. One more pound to the back of my head and the world went black, the roars and an anguished scream echoing out of my ears.

* * *

As I slowly slid open my eyes once more, I couldn't help but wonder if I was really dead already. All those lessons I had taken with Gol and Maia would have been for no use. I would have let my father down. I hadn't even given the crystal around my neck a second look, let alone figure out its purpose. I sighed, and let my eyes close again. I wondered what they would do now that there were only three possible candidates left. Or maybe even two, if they had gotten to Zorna. Precursors, how I worried about her. At least I had forgiven her for not coming to help me. Maybe that's why I was in heaven. Because I had died with no grudges.

I soon became aware of how I seemed to be bobbing up and down, like I was in an ocean. At least, what I thought it would be like to be in an ocean. I'd never gone swimming before. This confused me, since I pictured heaven to be a place which was completely white, with lots of happy people with wings. Golden houses would line the streets, where everyone had a family, and nobody was alone. But when I had opened my eyes, I saw a dark grey, wispy ground, and a white sky which had large foot prints running through it. Another odd thing about it was that these white particles were floating upwards, but were somehow landing on my face and onto my eyelashes, making my view rather fuzzy. Perhaps I hadn't gone to heaven. Maybe I had gone somewhere else.

I heard someone yelling from behind me. Those yells were unmistakably Zorna's, which meant I was definitely in heaven. Someone as nice as her didn't go somewhere bad when they died. I felt bad for bringing about her death, though. She hadn't really deserved to die. When I had first met her, I could already see past her outer shell. I don't know why I could do that, really. I saw what a lovely person she was. Sure, she yelled a lot, and got angry even more, but I could see she never really meant it, even though she thought she did herself.

"I'm sorry, Zorna!" I called out as loudly as I could, wincing slightly as I suddenly bounced harder. Her yells stopped for a minute, as if she was mulling over my apology, before they came back twofold.

"Egeus? You're alright? You had me all worried over you for nothing, stupid! You should have seen yourself, laying there in the snow! It looked like they'd taken all the stuffing out of you! And then they set their dirty paws on-" She was interrupted mid speech, which got her yelling at something else. "Watch it, you stupid animal! I can speak if I want to!"

_Poor Zorna_, I thought. _She still thinks she's alive_.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. You didn't deserve to die!" I called back, hoping she would get the hint.

"What? Egeus, I'm not dead, you idiot! Neither are you! Look around!"

I did as I was told, trying to make the world come into focus. I soon saw snow packed trees slowly passing us by, as well as other rocky formations which had been coated in the white powder. I felt the muscles of the beast below me ripple powerfully, and the pain in my back where its shoulder was poking into me. Actually, I could feel pain all through my body, and when I wiped at my face, red blood smothered my hand. This changed things considerably. I was still alive, which was a good thing, and so was Zorna, but we were captured by the angry snow beasts, which was a not so good thing. But why hadn't they just killed us in the first place?

After a moments silence, other than the creatures heavy breathing, which I was quite surprised I didn't hear before, I asked Zorna, "Where do you think we're going?"

"I don't know. Probably to their little cave where they can cook us so we're tastier," she muttered resignedly.

"What are they, exactly?"

"Snow Lurkers. Fiercer than your average purple Lurker, these guys have lived in the mountains since forever. They barely ever come out though. Even then, the last sighting of one was deep, deep into the mountains. I wonder what they were doing, coming out so far?"

Another loud roar from one of the Snow Lurkers quietened us, and for awhile, we simply just let our captors take us away. I took the time to examine out surroundings, and tried to memorise where we were going, so if we escaped, we'd at least know where we were going. It was about after one hundred lolloping steps of the Lurker carrying me that I forgot the first landmark I had decided to use.

As we rounded another corner, I saw something that surprised me. There was a group of the purple Lurkers Zorna had mentioned before, shivering where they stood, every so often one making a growl as if it were fed up. It didn't surprise me that they were so cold; they had a thinner build than the snow Lurkers, and only seemed to be wearing a loincloth, other than a large collar around their neck with a loop one would use to hook a leash or chain on, and the same metal bands around their wrists. They seemed to be guarding a larger Lurker who was using a contraption sort of like a ram to crack open the ice wall in front of it. Inside the ice, there seemed to be tons of barrels, all of which were emblazoned with the ancient symbol which represented Dark Eco. I tensed slowly, wondering what Lurkers could possibly want with Dark Eco. As we rounded the next corner, I briefly caught eye contact with one of the standing Lurkers. All I saw in those big eyes were pain and torment.

After what seemed like a forever of slow travel through the vast snowy mountains, we seemed to be approaching a huge fortress, impossibly large spiked poles forming a defensive barrier around the interior. At first, it seemed as if we were going to be dropped off there, but instead the Snow Lurkers pushed through some trees, and into a large whole that was in the side of the mountain adjacent to the fortress. Inside the cavern it was freezing, and an eerie blue slight filled the room. I heard Zorna shiver, and it sounded like she was about to speak up, when she suddenly screamed, the scream becoming fainter and more like an echo by the second. I felt a tight knot of nervousness form in my stomach, when I too, felt the solid ground disappear from under me.

The Snow Lurker gripped one arm around me tightly as we fell through the darkness, making sure I didn't slip from his grasp. The falling sensation abruptly stopped as we hit an icy slide, and our descent suddenly became fun. I could hear Zorna whooping from up ahead as we spiralled down the slide, strange crystals mounted on the wall lighting the way. The slide soon also gave way to another lot of space, and once again I was holding onto the Lurker for dear life, hoping, praying to the Precursors that we would soon reach an end to the falling.

The Precursors seemed to be listening, for as soon as I finished my prayer, we hit a huge pile of fine snow, sending sprays of it everywhere. I didn't dare move as I felt at least three other heavy bodies hit the snow pile in quick succession, burying us deeper into the cold powder. After a moment, as everything seemed to settle, I was yanked by the arm by my captor, and dragged along into a most magnificent hall. Huge pillars made of blue ice stretched up almost endlessly until they reached a far away ceiling. A long white carpet, made of the same stuff that the Lurkers wore on their heads, stretched from the double doors we had just come from, to an even grander set at the other end of the room. Lining the walls were small caves, which presumably led further into the complex we'd been pulled into. On the walls above the caves, which were also made of an ice of some sort, were carvings of other Snow Lurkers, in rather awe inspiring poses.

Whilst I was busy admiring the icy palace, Zorna was kicking up quite a fuss, trying to pull away from her Lurker. "Get off me, you stupid thing! I'll kill you all, I swear!" she yelled, her voice echoing around the large hall. I wondered what we'd do if we could escape. We certainly couldn't go back the way we came, and if we were to try and escape through the tunnels, we'd surely get lost, and then be found by the Lurkers. Our situation was honestly not looking good, and that's why I tried to ignore her cries.

Eventually we had reached the end of the hall, where the bigger double doors were. They seemed to reach up to the ceiling, and would have been impossibly heavy to move. I had managed to walk the whole way, my Lurker just pushing me along every now and then, where as Zorna had been hiked up onto the shoulder of another Lurker, where she was now flailing about uselessly. The four other Lurkers which had been travelling with us manned the door, slowly pushing it open with a large crack and boom. From inside, I could hear two voices conversing, and inside my head, I could hear the third.

"Procuring the Dark Eco barrels frozen into the cliffs is taking much loner than expected."

"The bargain was that if your Lurkers could obtain the barrels by the time we were to meet you again, we would not put any of you Southern cousins under slavery. Yet here we are, and no progress has been made!"

"_The days are short, come the month of Belia. The weather is harsh, delaying the progress."_

"You said it could be done!"

"_It can be done…but I have no power over the forces of nature. You must be patient."_

"YOU are in no position to tell US to be patient!"

"…we will extend the deadline to the end of this month, when the weather should clear up. We not accept any more accuses after that."

"_I see…now please, leave me. I have more desirable company awaiting me."_

I felt my heart both rise into my throat, then sink back down into the pits of my stomach. I knew those voices.

"_Come in…" _the voice inside my head beckoned. I looked to Zorna, who had now been put down, wondering if she had heard the same thing. Apparently she did, because with a little throw back of her shoulders, she marched in. I found myself following behind her, feeling somewhat nervous. This large room was somewhat similar to the hall we had just come from, except there were large pelts also hanging from the walls, and in front of us towered a large throne, its back made up of three biggest icicles I had ever seen. Seated in the throne was another Snow Lurker, but it was much larger than the rest. The pelt it wore on its head cascaded down onto the floor around it, covering that portion of the room with what looked like an incredibly soft, warm fur. It wore Precursor armour, much like my chest plate, all over its body, almost making it appear like a statue. It never moved an inch as we drew closer, flanked by the Lurker guards, and not even steam rose from the spiky helmet it wore to show that it breathed. We came to the foot of the stairs which led to the throne, at which the Lurkers stopped and bowed deeply. Zorna also came to a faltering halt, looking up the large unmoving creature in front of us. Unsure of what to do myself, I simply bowed my head, and waited for the worst.

"_Calm yourselves, young chosen ones, I mean you no harm," _the voice rang through our heads, sounding distinctly female.

"Oh really? That's strange. You see, not only did we get clobbered by your goons, but we got dragged through miles of snow to a place that we have no idea how to get out of. I mean, just look at him!" she cried, gesturing at me. I rose my head meekly up towards the Queen Lurker, to show her what I assumed would be a face covered in cuts and bruises.

"_I apologise for my soldiers' actions. Sadly, Lurkers have no good way to communicate with humans, and I dare say you wouldn't have come any other way."_

"Well, apology not accepted. If you wanted to see us so bad, you should have come yourself!" I gave Zorna a quick side ways glance. How she even had the courage to speak, let alone argue with the Queen, was beyond me. Attempting to try and fix up what Zorna had said, I mumbled, "It's alright, really…just gave us a bit of a shock."

"_What is done is done. You two will be well looked after for the rest of the night. However, we must talk on other matters. You no doubt saw on your way up here, Lurkers of all walks of life trying to break into a wall of ice, to get to the Dark Eco barrels on the other side, did you not?"_

I nodded. "They looked…unhappy."

"_Ah, you must Egeus…you do indeed live up to your reputation."_

Zorna looked as equally baffled as I did. "Reputation? And how the hell did you know his name, just from what he said? What the hell is going on here?"

"…_and you must be Zorna. You are just as they say. What and how I know what I do is not up for discussion, just yet. We must talk of the slavery of my people."_

"The Lurkers? Slaved? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys seem a little bit too strong to be pushed around!"

"_It is not the Lurkers you see on the earth's surface that are in danger; it is their families that lay below. For each day they do not see results, they destroy our innocents. That is why we do as they command. For the moment, they only threaten our Southern cousins, those who live deep under the ground, near the warm magma. After they have depleted the Lurker numbers there, they will move their sights onto here, and try to breach the palace."_

"Weren't those the people you were talking to before?" I asked quietly. "They were in here, but they didn't try and hurt anyone."

"_They do not dare, as long as I live. When I die, the spirit of the mountains shall pass on also, and this place shall melt under the suns. They will then use the opportunity to take over the throne of the Lurkers, as surely they will be the only ones with enough power. It would be a tyrannical rule, and all the freedom of the Lurkers would be lost."_

"Er, excuse me if I'm sounding a little dumb, here, but if that's what they ultimately wanted to get, power over the Lurkers, why didn't they just off you then?" Zorna asked, crossing her arms. "Woulda made stuff a whole lot easier."

"_As I said, when I die, so does the mountains. They still have use for this place as long as the Dark Eco barrels are here. Their deadline, when all the barrels are extracted, will be the day that they make their move. I am fully aware of this; but I say nothing, for it would only lead to more deaths of innocent Lurkers."_

"That's a pretty big damn fix you've got yourself in, then. But what has that got to do with us?"

"_You two are part of the four who have been chosen by the Precursors of old to stop the villainy that plagues our world. The four of you, along with the child who walks two paths of time, shall save us all!"_

For a moment, I just couldn't believe what was happening. It was if I was being pounded to death by the Snow Lurkers once more, and my mind was floating away from my body. Even Zorna remained silent, a dark, thoughtful expression consuming her face. Usually I could stand a silence for as long as I wanted to, but this time, things were different. What had been said was to serious to just be taken and dealt with.

"But…we're just meant to be apprentices! We're only meant to take a trip around our world, and then all gather at the Citadel, and given our future masters! No one said anything about saving the world! No one said anything about fighting Gol and Maia!"

My voice echoed loudly through the huge room. The tension felt so thick around me that I could have cut it with a knife. Zorna was staring at me, mouth agape. "Wh-what?"

"_Your journey never was about apprenticeship. None of you will ever become Sages, or at least not in this century. This journey you are undertaking, has always been about strengthening yourselves, for when the time comes, you can step up to save our world. Even with this knowledge, which you have learnt so early, you will continue on with your quest, and ensure that the other three chosen children remain safe."_

"Everyone…has been lied to? Reddy knew about all of this…?" Zorna murmured quietly, more to herself than anyone else.

"_The Sages have been preparing all of you for this. Whilst it may seem like betrayal, it is really all for the best. Rejoice in your new found knowledge, and consider it carefully. This is all I have to say for now."_

Things had a habit for moving so fast that I could comprehend them. Before I knew it, we were being lead out of the Queen Lurkers audience room, back out into the main hall, and into the nearest cave entrance. I was too dazed to realise that we split up into two groups, Zorna being lead down one fork in the tunnel, and I down the next. It was all just a blur as to how they showed me to my room, with its long wide bed in its centre. But by the end of all of this, I found myself tucked up into its warm covers, staring up at the ever so lightly uneven ceiling of packed snow.

I did as the Queen suggested, and I considered what had been said. I considered it quite a bit. I considered the lie that had been spun to all of us. I considered how it should have been obvious that it was a lie for some reason, like how the Yellow Sage had never complained about feeling old, or how he was one day going to be replaced.

I considered having to fight my old teachers and friends, Gol and Maia. I considered what may have driven them to start doing something so bad, when they used to be so good. They had experimented with Dark Eco, which from the last time I had seen them had altered them quite a bit, but now they truly were crazy for the substance. What was it that they saw in Dark Eco that had made them do this?

I considered how there another, a fifth person who would be in on all of this. How he some how was in two time slots at once, if what the Queen said was the truth. I wondered what the people up South were like. If they were nice, and kind. I wondered if they had any idea of what they were doing was actually based on a lie, and that eventually, they would be facing the two Dark Sages.

I considered how Zorna seemed so upset that her father had lied to her. How I felt that my own father had lied to me.

I considered how brief the Lurker Queen was on all the details. How she had suddenly and remorselessly dumped it all on us, like we were to be expecting it. What was not telling us? What were we missing from the main picture?

The next time I saw her, I was determined to find out.


	10. The Oracle of Revelation

**Oh baybeh. Four in a row. But I can promise you now, tomorrow there won't be an update, because I simply won't have the time. Now, I'm going to sing you a song that will convince you to read and review this chapter. Imagine cute little puppies and kittens being left out on the side block by their hateful owners, peeping their little heads over the top whilst the car drives away, leaving them yipping or mewing pitifully. Suddenly, it begins pouring down with rain, soaking the poor animals. Ahem.  
"Am I not pretty enoooough? Is my heart too broken? Do I cry too muuuuuch? Am I too outspoken? Don't I make you laaaaaugh? Should I try it harder? Why do you see right through meeeee?" Are you feeling guilty yet? Leaving those little kittens out in the cold? You should man, you should. Now imagine a kind young lady walking along the street with an umbrella, who stumbles over the box of tiny little animals, who are now crying for their mothers. Seeing their distress, she picks up the soggy box, and immediately runs home to rub them all dry with a towel, and gives them a warm loving home. Mika and Helen are that young lady. You can be that young lady (or gentleman) too, and give my story hope with a review.  
Anyway, the normal disclaimers apply. I'mma shut up now, because this is the most rambliest Author's Note I've seen in my entire life.**

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As we all piled onto the small dock that lead down to the ruined fishing boat of the local fisherman, and his much more advanced hovercraft used for transport, I finally decided what Raine reminded me of. He reminded me of a wolf, what with his messy mane of silver hair, and his carnivorous smiles. I wasn't sure whether he was aware of it, but whenever he smiled because he felt he had triumphed over another, or he was thinking of a plan, he smiled in such a way that showed his delight in being on top, his eyes sparkling with a quiet confidence.

I wasn't going to be his prey, however.

Whilst he took me as a silent, shy girl, I was simply reserved, and he was just as easy to figure out. But I think the thing that worried me more was that Raine didn't try and hide his personality, nor his thoughts on others. He really had no shame in the way he acted, which annoyed me greatly, because quite honestly, he had a habit of acting like a stuck up prick.

I think that's why I enjoyed seeing him so frustrated every time he hit a brick wall, which was becoming more and more often.

"…so, you're telling me that ever since you stole the boat last night to go on your own little pleasure cruise to Misty Island, it's been weighing down on your conscious so much so that you simply can not step foot in it again without asking it's owner?" Raine asked Jak and Daxter, trying to keep his tone even.

"Uh, well, that just about sums it up, yeah," Daxter nodded from Jak's shoulder. Jak cast his gaze down on his feet, looking quite guilty indeed.

Raine rubbed his hands down his face, trying to come to terms with the situation. "What if Olethea and I just went, leaving your conscious free of guilt?" he asked, frustration starting to creep into his voice. It was the best I could do to keep my stoic expression.

"You guys wouldn't last a MINUTE on that island without us. Anyway, we know exactly where to go, don't we, Jak?" Jak raised an eye brow at his friend, who ignored him as usual and continued on. "The good thing is we know exactly where the owner is! Ever since his fishing boat got chomped on by some Lurker Shark, the old coot has been tryin' his luck on the river in the Forbidden Jungle!"

"The Forbidden Jungle? That sounds promising…" Raine muttered sarcastically, something that completely flew over Daxter's head.

"No need to thank us, just doing our duty as braaave adventurers!" the ottsel drawled, giving me a wink. I felt some of the morning's breakfast rise in my throat.

"We'd better go now, before it gets dark. If we hurry, we might even be able to reach Misty Island before night sets in," I said matter-of-factly, turning on my heel to walk back up the dock once more.

"Hey, Olly baby! Afraid of the dark, are we? Well, don't you worry; Big Ol' Daxter will be there to scare away the monsters!" I heard Daxter call out after me, jumping off of Jak's shoulder to chase me on foot. This was certainly more than enough motivation to start running.

* * *

As Daxter lay panting in the sand, the others and I stood around the short arch which marked the separation from the friendly beaches of Sandover, to the largely uncharted depths of the Forbidden Jungle. We had left our packs with the friendly farmer who lived out here. Whilst he wasn't much of a guard, at least then they weren't being left alone in the open. As Daxter began to stand up, leaning heavily on Jak's leg for support, Raine asked, "The Precursor Statue up there. Have you ever gone to see it?" Jak immediately looked to me, tilting his head, as if to ask, 'Is it safe to tell him?' I inclined my head slightly in affirmation, and let Daxter do the talking for us. "Oh yeah, we used to come down here all the time as kids. As soon as we were big enough to make the jump to each stack-"

"You mean when Jak and I were. You still couldn't even make the jump yesterday," I muttered quietly under my breath, quietly enough that only Jak and Raine could hear.

"- and we went over and talked to it. Called me and Jak the Heroes of Light!" I couldn't help but give a tiny little sneer at Daxter. To everyone else present on that day, the Oracle made it quite clear that it was addressing Jak and me.

"Heroes of Light, hm? How interesting. Do you think it might talk some more for us today?" Raine inquired innocently.

"Depends," Daxter said, his eyes becoming shifty. "You loaded?"

As we clambered up a largish rocky mound to get into a good position for jumping, I noticed that Raine was indeed very capable physically. I had pinned him as the booky type, who wouldn't have done much training for the trip, but as I watched him easily jump and pull himself up without so much as a small grunt, it was clear that I had been proven otherwise. Not that him being strong and agile was especially a good thing; if there ever came a time I needed to physically subdue him, it was going to be difficult.

Soon, all of us reached the grassy top of the rock structure, and were then faced with the task of reach the first stack. I could see Raine was mentally calculating the distance, figuring out just a normal jump wouldn't do it. Daxter was quick to take charge of the scene. "C'mon, Jak. Show 'em how the pros do it!" No other word needed to be said, as Jak gracefully pulled himself into a roll, and then athletically sprung across the gap as he came out of the tumble. He repeated those steps to get to the next stack, and only needed to simply jump across to the platform on which the Oracle was situated on. Raine tried to restrain the impressed look on his face for a moment, before he caught my analysing stare. I had a habit of analysing people. I always found myself needing to know what was going on in another's mind. The people of Sandover were easy, as was Daxter. I stayed out of the mind of Keira and Samos out respect for them, though I always was tempted to try and figure the Green Sage out, so perhaps I would know what to do that would please him, just for once.

Raine and Jak were currently the only two that I had trouble completely figuring out. Raine was easy on the surface, especially since he didn't feel the need to hide his opinions. It was what was going on deep inside of him that was hard to decipher, like there was a thick mist shrouding his mind and heart. With Jak, it was the same, if not more so. On the surface, he seemed to be the shy mute boy who just wanted some good friends, but what was it on the inside which had Samos so interested in him?

I raised an expectant eye brow at Raine, waiting for him to cross. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, and stood back. "Please. Ladies first," he murmured, something that would have been taken as a polite offer, had it not been for the fact he was still baffled as to how he was going to cross. I murmured a quiet thank you, though I rolled my eyes as I fell into the roll, pushing myself forward to the next platform, and the next one after that without difficulties. Spending years with the two boys, running around for hours on end had left me in top physical condition.

It was Raine's turn next, and I had to give him credit for taking the plunge, even though he had apparently not learned how to perform a long roll-jump. Tucking his glasses into his shirt, were his Muse also hid, he let himself tumble, then pushed himself forwards as he had watched us do before. He sprung forward, but not a huge distance. Certainly not far enough to reach the ledge before him, that was for sure, as he began to fall. I turned away; ready to hear a defeated splash in the water below. I thought it would teach him to ask for help, instead of assuming he was better than turn to us for assistance. But the splash never came. Instead, there were Daxter's impressed sounding calls. I looked over my shoulder to watch a desperate looking Raine clinging onto the side of the tall muddy rock. With a snarl, he began clawing his way upwards, somehow plunging the tips of his fingers into the hard surface. With a few exasperated growls he made it to the top, panting, and soon sprawled himself out at the top, squeezing his eyes shut against the sun.

It was then I realised I had seriously underestimated Raine's determination to come out on top.

As we stood in front of the dimly glowing Oracle, with one Power Cell spinning in its eye socket, I felt some apprehension. It had been years since we had last spoken to the ancient statue. Would it still recognise us? Would it simply blow us off until we gave it what it wanted?

When it's deep, growly voice boomed out, I almost jumped a mile.

"_Good day, brave Warriors of Light. I sense that your ranks have grown by one since the last time we met."_

Daxter's mouth dropped as he turned to Raine. "Heeey, it must be talkin' about you, Raine! Doesn't surprise me, the way you went all animal on that stack back there! So, how does it feel to be one of us?" he asked, gesturing between himself and Jak, a grin forming on his face.

"_You are certainly not one of the 'us' you speak of…pipsqueak," _the old Oracle growled, annoyance lacing its words.

"WHAT! But I'm the only other male here, other than Jak and Raine!" Daxter cried, looking around desperately, until his eyes fell on me. "And SHE can't be a warrior 'cause she's a girl!"

"…what?" Before I could restrain myself, I felt myself advancing on Daxter.

"It's true! Only guys are warriors! Girls are meant to be damsels in distress! Right Jak?" Daxter squeaked, now hiding behind his friend's leg. Jak would have nothing to do with that, and was quick to push Daxter back out into the open.

"Now now now, Daxter, sexism has never been very appealing, wouldn't you agree?" Raine purred, he himself sounding rather dangerous. I looked to the young man, noticing how his eyes glittered, a forced smile tugging at his lips. Had Daxter really hit a nerve, or was this just a put on show for the Oracle?

"Alright, alright, jeez guys…she can be a…warrior-ess, then?" Daxter mumbled, deciding not to argue on too much further with the point since he was heavily out numbered.

"_Silence!" _boomed the statue, which caused all of us to jump slightly. _"Since the dawning of the time of humans, I have been in wait for the day that the Warriors of Light would rise again, and save the world once more from threat. There have been great warriors before you, chosen by us, the Precursors, to be the guardians of the world. Whilst many have succeeded in their given task, do not think that all chosen by us are immune to failure. Those who have failed still have an important role to play, however, and in the end, have all proven themselves to be worthy. I sense great promise in all of you; even the two who stand not present here today. Whilst there may have been doubt cast upon you, rejoice in your new beginning! As a sign of good faith, unto you I bestow a Power Cell."_

The said Power Cell disappeared from the huge round eye socket, and down into the pipe inside of the statue. It soon popped out in front of us all, where Raine was the first one mobile to pick it up, where he jammed it into the safety of his pocket.

"_Use that Power Cell to open the final door, the door which will lead you to the real truth, the truth you all seek," _the Oracle instructed ominously, before falling silent once more, losing its glow. Jak and Daxter looked to each other, both clearly puzzled by the words spoken by the Oracle. Raine was staring off into thin air, his brow furrowing with thought. I was the only one standing there with an expressionless face. What the statue had said certainly had confused me, but it certainly was nothing that didn't warrant more than a nonplussed look.

If what was said by the Oracle was true, then the forces at work were far from what any human could come to understand, and weren't something we could actively change. Instead, I simply accepted my role, and began making my way down from the Oracle, making a swan dive down into the cool water below.

* * *

We all ended up gathering on the beach, no one daring to enter a jungle filled with more unknowns, when we had already been served up a whole lot of mysteries to consider. I sat back in the sun, letting the afternoon sun beat down onto my skin and dry me off. Daxter and Jak were flopped out onto the sand on their backs a little closer down to the water's edge in front of me, whilst Raine paced somewhere behind my back, his Muse bobbing along on his shoulder.

"This changes things…this changes things a lot…" he muttered again for the sixth time in the few minutes we had spent on the beach.

"We know already! Stop sounding like a stupid broken record, and say something more helpful!" Daxter complained, even though he probably wasn't thinking of much himself.

"What do we know? We are apparently part of some sort of ancient fabled quintuplet of 'Light Warriors'. How do we know this? There are three of us here who are assumed to be part of the five, and the Oracle mentioned 'the two who are not present'. From the rule I can see forming, that being one must be a child of a Sage, we can assume the other two are Zorna and Egeus, children of the Red and Yellow Sages, respectively," Raine said slowly, speaking his thought process out loud. Obviously, he had finally hit an obstacle with which he needed help.

Daxter spoke up. "But what about Jak over here? His parents aren't no Sages. Hell, he doesn't even know his parents, do ya, Jak?" Jak tilted his head back to look at us, shaking his head, sadness showing in his eyes. It was true; Jak had no known parents, and instead he had lived with the Green Sage all his life.

Daxter had no parents either, but he at least knew what happened to them. Apparently there was some sort of horrific Dark Eco accident way back when. They'd been transporting some Dark Eco boxes to Samos for him to study, since they were the only ones brave enough for the task. Little did they know that the crates were highly volatile, and after a couple of bumps, they exploded, sending the lethal substance every where. Apparently there wasn't all much left of them by the time anyone had found their bodies. They were the first recorded human deaths caused by Dark Eco, but I had no doubt that plenty more had died before that. Anyway, it was such a traumatic experience for everyone that Samos had completely turned off the idea of learning about it, instead deeming it too dangerous. That's how Daxter came to be living with the Sage as well. He was only a baby at the time at the time of their deaths.

Talking about his parents was strictly taboo, of course.

"He didn't know his parents? That still leaves plenty of possibilities open," Raine replied nonchalantly back at Daxter, acting as if Jak wasn't there. It brought me back out of my thoughts. "Anyway, let's move on. The Oracle mentioned 'Warriors of Light'. Has anyone any more specific answers as to what sort of warriors we are meant to supposedly be?"

Daxter piped up again. "Well…light is good, right? I always thought it meant that you guys were good guys. I always put the good guys with light and the bad guys with dark."

"…how about Light Eco?" I suggested quietly, more to myself than anyone. I could feel three pairs of eyes staring intently on me, which made me feel uncomfortable.

"Light Eco? It hasn't been heard of since the days of the Precursors, but…you might be onto something there, since the Precursors allegedly chose us for this role," Raine said, excitement straying into his voice. "What if we are the key to Light Eco?"

"Keep thinking," I muttered bluntly, closing my eyes.

"Y-yes, of course…well, what else did the Oracle say? It made several connotations to suggest that there have been Warriors of Light before. Rising again, new beginnings…"

"More importantly, failure," I cut in. "our journey is not one of a one hundred percent success rate."

"Well thank you for pointing that out, Little Miss Sunshine!" Daxter grumbled sarcastically, though I chose to ignore his comment as Raine went on to say, "But those failures were allowed a second chance, by the sounds of things. Let's consider a hypothetical situation for a moment. What if we were the only Light Warriors to ever exist? Then we would be the ones who 'rose' again, given a 'new beginning'. This suggests we were part of the group which failed. Which means…" Raine trailed off, and I could hear him sigh in frustration. "I really have no idea. It would mean something impossible."

"It means that we've been brought back from the dead, if we did indeed die, and returned back as influential children. Or, somehow time travel came into play," I said simply, even though just saying it honestly confused my brain. How could we travel through time if we had been born here? Raine was quick to voice my thoughts.

"Time travel is ruled out, because we know we were born in this time period. At least, most of us know we are. Jak doesn't have parents to prove his case." Jak turned on his side and hunched up in a ball, as if he were feeling guilty for something he couldn't help. I would have defended him openly, but I still held a small grudge against him for all the attention he took away from me by my own parent. Then it hit me.

Parent. Only one.

"Well, Raine, none of us have mothers, do we? It takes both a man and a woman to conceive a child, and none of us here are so naïve to believe we were flown in as a baby on a Flut-Flut," I said coolly, sitting up straight. My logic was there, and he couldn't deny it.

"If the Sages thought it was important information, which obviously it is, they would have told us that we came into the world by another means, Olethea. Whilst this is a very odd situation, I don't think we should be jumping to the most outlandish solutions just yet!" Raine argued back, his voice rising. I felt no need to push my point into a full blown argument, so I simply asked, "Well, if that's not what it is, what exactly is going on here?"

"What ever it is, when it all gets revealed, it ain't gonna be pretty, that's for sure," Daxter muttered darkly, standing up once more to stretch his legs.

"I think…the best course of action for the moment is to just get our priorities straight before we do any more digging into the mystery surrounding us. I have a feeling this revelation and the situation with the Lurkers is linked. It's just too much of a perfect coincidence," mumbled Raine, stopping his pacing to sit down a good metre away from me. "Obviously, what ever we thought this journey was going to be, it is not. The sooner we are ready to accept the unexpected, the better."

A large snore from the farmer to our far right filled in the silence that had fallen over our group. Not even Daxter seemed to have the motivation to come up with some wise crack.

_Well, that's okay, _I thought calmly, letting the warm sun wash over me. _I've been ready to accept it all my life._


	11. The Search for the True Self

**N'aww. You guys sure know how to flatter a girl, don't you? Look at me, all blushy. But still, now I know that using guilt is a great method. Yaaaaay. Still, that's probably going to be the last of my review mongering. If you review, you review, if you don't, you don't. But don't be shy about it. I'd love to hear your opinion. Chapter 10 has been edited some, by the way, just to iron out some repetition I found, as well as some typos. Feel free to look back on it if you didn't find it satisfying the first read. Anywho, now we're back into the hands of Zorna, who seemed a little iffy last time we saw her. What's going on inside that head of hers? You're about to find out! Normal disclaimers apply. Please sit back enjoy this new chapter.**

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Opening my eyes seemed like such an effort. Looking at the sparkling ceiling above me made me want to close my eyes once more. Shivers wracked my naked body, and all I wanted was to feel the over powering heat of lava flowing underneath me. The smell of cleanliness made me want to choke on the vile smell of sulphur.

I sat up wearily, clutching the thick fur blanket close to my chest. I didn't really remember much of how I got to be there. At first I had been puzzling over in my mind at why my father, the Red Sage had lied to me, and then somehow I was in the bed, somewhere completely different, naked.

I slid out of bed, trying to ignore the goose bumps that covered my arms and legs. There was no door to the room, but simply just an arch carved into the heavily packed snow walls. It was quite amazing how they had made the place, I had to admit, with all the snow and ice. I wouldn't have had the patience for it what so ever. I was like that; things had to be done quickly. Doing things slowly made this feeling build up inside of me, like I was going to burst. Actually, a lot of things were always building up inside of me, and so that's why I yelled a lot. I yelled at little things, and sometimes, for no reason at all.

I was unashamed to stand there bare with no privacy, as I could imagine many girls my age would be. In my opinion, a body was a body, and if animals could run around without clothes, I could quite easily do it myself. It was out of practicality that I wore my clothes, or so, at least I told myself. A lot of things were turning on its head at that moment, and I wasn't sure of a lot. I managed to catch my reflection in a bunch of icicles that were hanging from above, and I couldn't help but stare at myself for awhile. Even though the reflection was broken up into dozens of tiny mes, it was the first time I had ever seen my full body. What I saw didn't really scare me. It was all normal, from what I could tell. It just upset me how frail it looked. Like my limbs could be snapped off effortlessly. Like a sharp object could easily rip through my skin. All my life I tried to convince myself I was invincible, which was why I never cried; but now, things had changed. I had been betrayed by the closest person to me, which had made me vulnerable. I hated feeling that way. I felt that feeling rise up in me once more.

Without thinking about what I was doing, I swiped at the icicles, bringing them crashing to the ground, shattering on impact. At least over them I felt powerful. I noticed how my reflection in the icy shards was now scattered, random body parts appearing on different shards. I smiled grimly, taking note of how my head was now separate to my body. I supposed it was a sign; by brain had to work separately from my heart. No more trusting people just because they were supposedly close. My father had quite clearly shown me how even those of blood could lie to each other. The nicest, simplest person in the world could hide a dark secret agenda. A long story short: nobody could be trusted. I had to use my wits now, and keep my heart to myself.

I turned away from my broken reflection and went about getting dressed. How I had gotten naked in the first place was a complete mystery. The Lurkers didn't even seem to have the brains to be able to work out how to take off clothes without ripping them off, so it must have been I who had done the deed. As I pulled on my long sleeved red tunic, I felt sick for wearing the colours which represented him. It covered me, indicating that I was his spawn, of all people. I would have discarded it, but it was simply too cold down in that damn ice block full of flea bitten animals.

After I was fully clothed, and armed, I made my way out into the snowy corridor cautiously. I had no idea what time it really was, since no light seemed to make it down there, where ever the hell 'there' was. I didn't feel like meeting another one of the brutes who had dragged me down into the cold hell hole, and just thinking about the trip made my stomach feel bruised and sore. I soon came to a fork in the tunnel. One headed up somewhere to the right of me up ahead, the other headed just plain left. I opted for the left tunnel, and found myself wandering down a gently sloping path. I didn't actually have any plans as to where I was going; just moving kept my mind off of things.

Maybe I had hoped to find myself somewhere new, because when I appeared at the main hall once more, I felt my heart sink. The place just seemed too chiselled for a nest of Snow Lurkers, but I supposed I had no right to judge. I must have been just as an odd, stupid animal to them, what with my skinny white body, with these odd lumps on my chest, and yellow fur sprouting only on the top of my head. I couldn't help myself but laugh as I strolled out into the middle of the huge hall, imagining them all wandering if I had caught some sort of disease which had made all my fur fall out.

"_You should come in,"_ whispered a hollow voice in my head, hollow as the echoes of my laughter. It was that weird Snow Lurker Queen thing again. The one who had revealed the stuff which had made me the way I was then. I sort of resented her for telling me all of that. If she hadn't, I would have been blissfully aware. But since I was now trying to use my brain for everything, I supposed I had a lot to thank her for.

I walked over to the two large doors that lead to her chambers. Thankfully, they were open a crack, so I could slide on in without trying to push it myself, or asking for help. The armoured animal Queen still sat perched on her throne, motionless, emotionless. Did she really care about what we had to go through? I had been dwelling on the things that had affected me personally, when really, there was a whole lot more that was going on that just being screwed with by family. A whole bunch of responsibilities were riding on my shoulders, and the suddenly became so heavy I felt like I was going to face plant on the furry carpet I was standing on.

"_Come closer. I don't bite," _she whispered quietly in my head, as if she had spoken normally she would have been disturbing someone. I couldn't help but smirk at the little joke in my head; you would if you didn't have to wear the muzzle. None-the-less I did as I was told and walked up till I was at the very foot of the stairs which lead up to the throne itself. I wondered why they bothered with such fancy stuff. Weren't they just bloody thirsty animals, after all?

"_How are you feeling from last night?" _the Queen asked politely. I could have sworn she tilted her head down to look at me, instead of staring aimlessly off into space.

"Oh, you know. Pretty crap," I answered honestly, sitting myself down on the thick rug under me. I was in the sort of mood where I was beyond caring what my language was like.

"_I take it you didn't take yesterday's information well, then."_

"Just some bits of it are harder than others to swallow. That whole 'being lied to your whole life' thing probably topped the list. The fact that it was my father sweetens the deal somewhat. I suppose finding out I'm supposed to save the world is sort of a big deal too."

"_Lies are always nice to hear, but hard to come to terms with when they are exposed for what they truly are. But surely you understand it was a lie of necessity, do you not?" _the Queen Lurker asked, not in the condescending 'I know better than you do' tone adults had a habit of adopting, but instead curiosity. She was trying to figure out how I worked. What my opinions were. Luckily for her, I had had plenty of opinions to pass around.

"Well actually, I don't think it was. What was he protecting me from by lying? If anything, I was put in further danger by not knowing what was going on. It wouldn't be so hard to just say, 'Oh hey Zorna, these bad guys are going to do some bad stuff as bad guys have a habit of doing, and I'm going to send you out to go kill 'em', would it? It would have saved a whole heap of time, instead of going on about all these life lessons that you apparently need to know to become apprentice. You know what? If he had just told me the truth from the start, I wouldn't have never worried about whose apprentice I was going to be, and if I was going to become a Sage of some crappy eco for the rest of my life, and do the same crappy things each and every day, and become boring and have all these responsibilities. That's the weird thing, actually. I hate things being boring and slow, and doing the same thing everyday, but at the same time I hate the thought of going out of my comfort zone and having to prove myself to everyone by becoming someone great. I just want to exist in some little non-existent pocket of reality where everything is just fine for me," I ranted, falling back down onto the woolly rug where I buried my fingers, writhing every now and again with each subject change, each new line of thinking. I found it odd that I could just tell this all to someone without real prompting, but I didn't really feel like questioning why I was doing it. All I knew was that it felt good to be escaping my body, like I didn't have to think over it any more.

"_Oh, Zorna…there are many things we must question in the world, and so many contradictory things for us to feel. You seem to have taken it all the hardest out of the five," _she murmured, leaving me confused. Sure, maybe I had taken to being lied to pretty harshly, but how would she know about any of the others? _The others probably don't even know what's going on, _I thought.

_They're probably just wandering around the world blissfully, thinking that by the end of it all, they would be taken in by another Sage and learn about the secrets of a certain eco, and find their little niche in life as a future Sage. Raine is probably all proud of himself for figuring out some puzzle they faced, and ranting about how eco was so important, and how we have to learn about Dark Eco to get anywhere. Precursors…what did he know about Dark Eco? I heard there's hardly any of the stuff down South. Heh…he really is going to get a surprise when Gol and Maia try and vaporise him instead of 'bestow unto him the knowledge of the world'. Psh…stupid guy._

I sat up slowly after there was a long silence in the room. I wondered if the large Lurker had fallen asleep. It was hard to tell, since she never moved, and a large helmet covered her face completely. By suspicions were proven wrong when she spoke up.

"_Zorna, I know where you must go to find your next set of answers. The answers won't be particularly nice, but it will explain a lot. In fact, it is the source of my own knowledge, and that of the four Sages. Ah…here comes Egeus now."_

I turned around to find a figure dressed in yellow squeeze through the large double doors at the end of the chamber. Egeus jogged up towards up, and I noticed how wild his hair looked, how his clothes looked even more crumpled than usual, and the dark circles under his eyes. It was kinda cute. He stifled a yawn as he came to stand beside me, his cheeks going red as he found my eyes on him. "I-I'm sorry if I look a little scruffy. I didn't get a good sleep last night, and then I realised that I was the only one still in bed, so yeah…" he mumbled, casting his eyes to the ground.

"Lots of questions buzzing around in your head?" I asked casually, turning my gaze upwards towards the Queen once more. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Egeus grow even redder; his hair looking like it was standing up on end. "Yeah, something like that. And than I got really restless, and I was worried about you, so I went and checked up on you-"

"You…did…what?" I asked in a dangerously slow voice, standing up to face him properly. It wasn't that I was worried about him seeing me naked, it was just his worry about me that got me worried. It struck me as odd and different.

"I-I'm s-sorry! I won't do it again!" He blurted out, squeezing his eyes shut as if it was going to block me out. "I was just worried since we got separated and you seemed upset and I didn't want you to still be upset and alone!" I think he looked more shocked than me at his confession. That was the thing about Egeus; he was truthful to a fault. I hadn't had to spend more than a day with him to figure that out. I could have gotten angry at him for pinning me as the weak type, as he made it sound, but I supposed to reject his kindness was a pretty stupid idea, since sooner or later we were going to have to team up and apparently do some pretty important stuff.

I guess I hadn't really thought about how things were going for him, either. Finding out his old mentors weren't such saints wouldn't be so easy, I supposed. In a way, he had it worse than everyone; his dad had lied to him, and his teachers turned out to be the type to kill people for fun. But he still had thought of me first.

"…well, thanks then," I muttered, nodding my head to him. He looked surprised at the way I had just accepted what he had said, and seemed to relax, nodding back at me, still with a little blush in his cheeks.

"_Now that you two have sorted that out, I can now point you in the direction of your next goal, if neither of you have any objections to this." _I thought of objecting for the sake of it, but it was going to be pretty pointless if I did.

"_I'm sure both of you realise that in your current state you would not be able to defeat Gol and Maia. You have too little experience, and don't know enough about yourselves, let alone them. If you were to face them as you are now, you would surely perish. This is why I suggest you travel to Rock Village, through the Mountain Pass. In the Rock Village you must find a way to enter an old Precursor city, which is located deep beneath the waves. I'm sure you won't have too much trouble with this. In this city, you must search for an old artefact. You will find it within an Oracle, the likes of which I'm sure you're familiar with."_

Egeus scratched his head looking confused, whilst I nodded, thinking of the strange statue that resided on a rocky platform beside the lava's edge. It was a weird old thing, which would randomly begin rambling on about strange things if you managed to get close enough to it. Trying to obtain something from one of those loons was going to be hard. But why hide it all the way down there? Why not keep it on hand, if it was so important?

"Well, alright then. We were going to head that way anyway," I replied, putting a hand on my hip. "So, now what? We just go on our way?"

"_First, I wish to show you something…"_

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The next chain of events was both odd and surprising, but not important enough to ramble on in exact detail about. The Snow Lurker Queen actually began to move, the armour she was clad in clanking and squeaking the whole time. The armour made her walk upright like a human, and she moved slowly and uncomfortably, but it was still something to behold. She lumbered behind her throne, which apparently wasn't set up against the back wall like I had thought it would be. We followed the Lurker around, and discovered a gaping hole carved into the back. This hole was an entrance to a tunnel, which snaked both up and down and to the side before coming to a dead end. This dead end contained a vent full of Blue Eco, and a launching pad. I only had a vague idea of what launching pad were all about and what you had to do to activate them through reading some books. None-the-less, the Queen Snow Lurker was quick to demonstrate by passing through the vent as if it were a normal, every day thing, then stood on the launching pad and jumped.

The strange thing about it was that it didn't really seem like it was her body that was channelling the eco, but instead it was her armour. Precursor crap was weird like that.

I was a bit hesitant to step into the vent of Blue Eco. It wasn't as if I hadn't been on an eco vent before; I had often made use of the vents that flowed in the Spider Cave to knock off the nasty critters. I could remember, though, the first time I had stepped on the Yellow Eco vent. I wasn't being chased by any of the oversized pests, I was just simply curious as to what the big deal was about channelling eco. I remember the rush through my body as it coursed through my veins, and how it made my world spin as I got light headed. That light headedness lead to my fainting. Luckily when I fell, I fell off of the vent, so I didn't get 'saturated', as they called it. After a couple of times practise, I got used to channelling such a concentrated amount of eco, and I could do it with ease. But this was a different eco, and I had no idea how my body was going to react.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward onto the vent, with Egeus waiting patiently behind me. The Blue Eco surged through my body, and almost instantly I could feel my heart begin to race at a million miles per minute. My whole body felt as light as a feather, energised, full of potential. The light headedness was there, but I decided not to dwell on it and instantly ran over to the launch pad, quicker than I had moved anywhere in my entire life, and sprang upwards into the dark narrow hole above the pad. The feeling was much like flying as I surged upwards, the current of Blue Eco still strong within my body. Looking upwards, I could see a small circle of light, and I tried to compress myself as much as possible so I would travel up faster through the air. The pad certainly had a kick to it, to be able to propel me that far upwards.

As the eco in me dwindled, I came soaring upwards from out of the whole, and landed quite neatly on the solid ground. A small shock wave of Blue Eco emanated from me as I landed, and that ended my rush of Blue Eco. Taking a step forward so Egeus would have room to land when he came up, I took the time to examine the room around me. It was a room which had jaggedy ice crystal walls which gave everything a slightly bluish tinge. I swore I had seen enough blue and white to last me a life time during my short over night stay at the Lurker nest. In the centre of the room was a golden Precursor pillar, with for windy ramps that led up to the top of it. There, I thought I could see the familiar glow of a Power Cell. With a bit of a start, I checked my pocket for the Power Cell I had managed to wheedle out of those two miners, down in the Crater. A pulse of relief came over me as I felt the warm bulge in my pocket. Power Cells were few and far between in those days, and having one went you had a fair bit of power over someone who was out collecting them.

This relief was crushed out of me when Egeus came flying out of the launch pad tube, arms flailing, and came crashing down on me, much to my displeasure (to say the very least). Whilst he certainly wasn't someone who was round, his height gave him an incredible weight, which I certainly felt baring down on my ribs. At it was somewhat warmer under him. Egeus was on the ball, however, and was quick to jump up and start apologising, his face redder than ever before. I felt the urge to scream something at him, but whether it was from the lack of air in my body or my ever increasing soft spot for the awkward young man that I simply waved him off, pulling myself up off the frigid ground.

"_This is a very important place," _came the haunting voice of the Queen through my pounding head. I looked around in a daze to find out where she had pissed off to, and found her strolling up one of the ramps which lead to the crest of the pillar. With a bit of a huff, I made my way to another of the ramps and began making my own way up, Egeus hot on my trail, still murmuring apologies.

"_Several years ago, approximately fifteen, during the First Eclipse, this place sprung to life, as did many Precursor monuments and buildings across the world. It began to vibrate and shake violently, whilst thousands upon thousands of ghostly voices sang praises. You are well versed on what day that was, are you not?"_

"Yeah. Apparently it was our birthday," I answered, nodding my head towards Egeus. "Sure was a heck of a lot of fuss. Do the Precursors really take things so seriously with the people they've picked to go fight evil on their behalf?"

"'_Birthday'…is an interesting way to put it. But yes, what you have been chosen for is quite the cause for such a fuss. You see Zorna; there is much beyond just destroying the current threat…so much more after that." _

"More? Please don't say more…what we're doing now is enough to hurt my brain in places I didn't know it could hurt," I whined, dragging my hands across my face whilst making an exasperated noise.

"I guess we'll come to that when we come to that," Egeus said steadily, moving up closer behind me. "After we've finished what we need to do here first, then we'll think about the future." I couldn't help but turn to smile at him and his backing up of me. He smiled back, this time looking unashamed at the pink that sprung to his cheeks.

The Lurker Queen nodded solemnly and gestured towards the Power Cell that was spinning in between us. _"Please, take it, and use it wisely on your journey,"_ she whispered, then turned to leave. _"I must return to my place on the throne. It was lovely to get up and stretch. Even more of a pleasure to meet such destined children. Farewell, Zorna. Farewell, Egeus." _And with that, the noble Lurker had disappeared out of sight.

I turned to Egeus, and stepped out of the way for him. "By all means, you take it. I'm not stepping on any more Precursor stumps or pillars. Really. Have your turn," I said graciously, then retreated back down the ramp. He looked down at me, confusion twisting his face. I nodded encouragingly at him, and hopped off the ramp completely, just to be safe. With a bit of a gulp, Egeus stepped down onto the top of the golden pillar, quickly swiping the Power Cell from its resting place. Before he could jump off, however, the pillar shuddered, making the whole place shake, then began to sink. Egeus leapt off, tumbling as he hit the ground, but by that time, the rumbles had stopped, and nothing major had happened. We looked at each other quizzically, then around us, then back at each other, before shrugging, Egeus getting himself up. We were about to search for an exit, when a familiar voice whispered in our heads:

"_Good…I see you really are the ones. You have activated a very old switch, which was linked to all the closed Yellow Eco vents around the word. They are now flowing once more, and are free for use. Only those of pure blood, chosen by the Precursors can unlock such switches. Be on the look out for the many other artefacts which are just waiting for your touch. Now go, go to the Rock Village and learn of yourselves properly, before it is too late!"_


	12. First Blood

The suns were high in the sky by the time we managed to get out of the icy cave. The clouds had parted, and I got my first glimpse of the blue sky that covered the planet. Even Zorna stopped to look out at the clear horizon, made jagged by other mountains and hills. It felt odd to have the small packs on once more, which we had conveniently found by the entrance of the cave. Obviously, the Lurker Queen thought we were going to be needing them.

"Wow…we must have been down there ages. Its day time and everything!" she exclaimed, pointing to the suns. "We've lost a whole bunch of time. We better get moving."

I sighed wistfully, brushing off some of the snow that had settled in my hair when we had pushed through a thicket of trees. "The view is nice, though…you don't think we deserve just a little break?"

"No. Not even a second. Anyway, look, we're still near that fortress. We might have been safe down there, but we'll probably get all sorts of ass kicking if we were to catch the attention of whoever is in there. The Lurkers down there might have been nice, but now we're back in the real world, they're probably not going to be so hospitable," Zorna muttered, turning to walk along through the snow. I gave the sky one last look, and then followed after the girl, crossing my arms to keep me warm. A lot had happened since we had been abducted. Lots of information to process. At first it seemed as if Zorna was having a hard time comprehending it all, but for whatever reason she now had her fire back, which was nice to see. As long as she was okay, then everything else was okay. I suppose it was a little bit weird how I cared about her so much, but I really couldn't help it. It was like I was born with it in me, and when I first saw her it revealed itself from inside of me, and made me watch her like a hawk.

Though, I think it helped, thinking about her and not about me. I was far too confused about myself, and thinking of it all made it all the more complicated and horrible, and then my brain ended up hurting, and then when that started hurting I remembered how much the rest of hurt which I didn't like, and then I felt dizzy and sick, and then I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep but I couldn't do that because I had so much more to do. See? It was all long and yuck to think about. So I thought about Zorna and looked after her and stuff was better.

Up ahead, Zorna was making squeals of frustration as she forced her legs through the snow, arms flailing each time she lost her balance, which by the looks of it was every step. I sped up my pace, thankful for my height. The snow only got to halfway up my shin which made for easy travelling. Zorna, on the other hand, had to struggle through knee deep. I had no doubt that I was overly tall; she was the normal, perfect size for a human being. It didn't appear to me as fair that she had to struggle because she was just right.

"Uh…are you okay?" I asked, now walking along beside her. She paused momentarily and looked at me indignantly, sniffed, then struggled onwards.

"I'm fine, thank you," she huffed, forcing her leg through a thick patch of snow. I shrugged off her decline and continued onwards with her in silence, admiring the white scenery around us. It was a lot easier to do that when we weren't being manhandled. It was sort of like how it had been explained to me by my ex-teachers; everything was blanked out, tops missing off of mountains, the ground just a white void we had to struggle through. But there wasn't the sort of gentle, serene feeling I thought there would be. It was more sombre and dull, like there was a huge weight weighing down on everyone.

"Mhhhh…!" Zorna grumbled, losing her balance once more, almost falling face first into the snow. I put a hand on her shoulder to steady her, and felt it sag resignedly beneath my touch. "This is just freaking ridiculous, you know that? One day they're pummelling us to death, the next they're treating us like the most important people they've ever seen, and then they're shoving us back out into the cold again. Bloody Lurkers!" she yelled out over her shoulder, waving a fist around at the retreating figure of the base. "If we needed to get to that bloody Rock Village place so bloody quickly, then they should have bloody dropped us off where they freaking picked us up!" Zorna had a habit of saying bloody before things that annoyed her, I observed. At least she had never really 'bloodied' me.

"It is a bit annoying, I suppose," I replied quietly, noticing we were coming up to the corner where we had passed the working Lurkers the other day. They were still at it, slowly pounding at the ice with their large wooden contraption. Zorna became aware of them just moments later, and hissed angrily. "Look at those things, just banging away at that ice. They just accept that they have to do what they're told by some Dark Sage loser people. Why don't they just rebel, and roar at them or something? Or better yet, why don't they just tackle them down and pound the ever living shit out of them like they did us?"

"Erm…didn't the Lurker Queen say that they were more worried about their families under the ground? If they just do this simple task, then they don't have to lose the people they care about most. I know that I certainly would," I suggested, whispering the last part quietly so only I could hear it. It didn't seem to matter anyway, since Zorna seemed to ignore me completely. "God, I just want to punch them all in the face! They should be at least trying to do something, rather than just succumbing to their fate!" she cried, her kicks through the snow becoming more aggressive. I could feel the anger radiating from her.

"Well, there isn't much we can do to help, other than go to the Rock Village to figure out what's going on. Then…then we can go get Gol and Maia," I forced out, throat closing up around the words. It still hurt, knowing that those two were behind such an evil plot. They used to be so nice, so kind.

"Like hell that's all we can do! If they don't want to stop what they're doing, I'll make them stop!" Zorna spat angrily, her pace dramatically increasing as we reached flatter ground with less snow. We were passing right by the huffing Lurkers when Zorna suddenly wheeled around and began yelling at the top of her lungs at them, throwing her arms up into the air, trying to scare them off. The Lurkers guarding the ram turned to look at the rampaging girl, backing off momentarily. Zorna saw this and sped up, chasing after them whilst whooping gleefully at her success. These became troubled cries as the Lurkers composed themselves and began charging back after her. It didn't take me another moment to come running up behind Zorna, tackling down the first Lurker which was rearing up in front of the hot headed girl. We tumbled through the snow a few paces, kicking and growling at each other. Behind me I could hear Zorna assaulting the other Southern Lurker, yelling all sorts of obscenities at it. The Lurker and I came to a precarious stop at the edge of the cliff, both our heads hanging over the edge. I grunted with fear as I could see all the tiny trees below, and slithered shakily back. The Lurker had other plans however, and rolled on top of me, pulling me backwards over the cliff. Southern Lurkers had a lot lighter build than the Snow Lurkers, so I found it easier to fight back, clawing at its huge furry face, head spinning with adrenaline. The Lurker pushed me further still over the cliff, so my head and shoulder were well over the edge, which prompted a frantic counter from me. With as much power as I could muster, I pushed my legs up like I was going into a handstand. Too late the Lurker realised what I was doing, and as my legs came over my head, the Lurker tumbled off with a defeated roar, falling down the incredible height to a most certain death. I only just managed to get my hands to grip the icy edge of the cliff as I came out of my backwards tumble, panting with fear, my stomach feeling like lead which was going to pull me down after Lurker.

I had taken my first life.

I slowly pulled myself up, burying my face into the cold ground, trying to block out the anguished roars that still filled my ears, the petrified look I had caught in its big yellow eyes as it had fallen. I had always known that during my journey I'd probably have to fight, but not kill. I felt tears well up in my eyes which I willed to go away as I look up to see Zorna standing over two bodies, the sword in her hand glistening with off coloured blood. I struggled to pull myself on to my feet, and staggered towards her, looking at the two lifeless bodies, globules of Green eco seeping from them. "There. Now, help me push the ram thing over the cliff," Zorna said with determination, pushing at the huge machine, seemingly unaffected by her slaying. I didn't budge and instead looked at her in disbelief. "You…you killed them."

"That I did. Nice move you pulled there, flinging the Lurker off of you like that. You're a pretty damn good fighter," she acknowledged, continuing with her futile pushes. "You gonna help me now or what?"

"Those Lurkers…they had families! They were trying to do what was told of them so they didn't get hurt, and now they're dead!" I cried, appalled. "You can only think of turning that thing over?" Zorna stopped her straining and wiped her brow, walking up to face me. "Is this your first kill? It explains a lot…look. I didn't mean for it to turn out this way. I had hoped that they would run, but they attacked. It was either us or them, Egeus. They're not just gonna let us have our way just because. The sooner you realise that, the sooner it'll seem easier. Now, will you please help me?"

I blindly did as I was told, and began throwing my weight against the ram, mind still numb from what she had said. Was it really all that simple? Would it really get easier? Would I really have to kill again, just to save myself? With my own strength added with Zorna's determination, the ram fell on its side. Zorna quickly went to work slashing the frame of it up with her strange sword, till only a splintered mess was left, which we dragged over the side of the cliff. I peered over the side after it, trying to see where it had landed, but it simply was too high. It made me even sicker to think what such a fall would have done to the softer body of an animal.

"Wow…look at all the barrels. Wonder what the Precursors were up to, stacking them all up here like this?"

Zorna had already moved back to the large icy face, and was tracing her fingers over the cracks the ram had made in the thick ice. "Probably put it all up here because it was dangerous, and so it was out of harms way," I replied, turning away from the edge to slowly make my way over. I was still feeling some animosity towards the girl who had killed so easily. I made sure to keep my eyes away from the two dead Lurkers.

"Probably," Zorna agreed, placing her hand on her hip, still admiring the frozen Dark eco barrels. "Nasty stuff. There's heaps of it down in the Spider Cave, like you wouldn't believe. Get caught in that and it's all over. I don't get why the Precursors were all over the ooze at first and then suddenly shunned it, leaving warnings about it everywhere. If they were so godly, how did they make the mistake of using it in the first place?"

"Maybe they weren't as great as everyone makes them out to be. Maybe they were like us," I murmured quietly, scratching the back of my head.

"Heh, probably were. Wouldn't think it though, the way they glorified themselves through all the sculptures and buildings and what not. Oh well…wanna keep going?"

"Mm…might as well."

As I began to plod off around the corner, Zorna stayed back to quickly absorb the Green eco which was floating idly around the bodies. It seemed wrong to me. Gol and Maia had always said that Green eco was sort of like a life force that lived in everyone, and allowed us to heal when we were sick or got wounded. Taking someone's life force, whether they are friend or foe, seemed greedy. Whilst I didn't understand Zorna's actions completely, I still didn't hate her, or feel bad towards her. She was still her. She was just doing what she had learned to do, I supposed.

Zorna caught up with me, looking somewhat refreshed. "Ah…maybe this day won't be so bad after all," she chirped. "We stopped the Lurkers, and now the snow is all thinning out so I can walk properly!" I nodded slowly, tilting my head upwards to look at the now partially cloudy sky. "Maybe…there might be more of the rams, though. I don't think Gol and Maia would get so worked up about just one mound of Dark eco. It's not like them. And we'll probably have to be on the look out now. When the other Lurkers find the bodies, they'll be after us."

Zorna stopped to look at me, somewhat impressed. "Look at you, thinking all rationally, now. If you can get smart from just knocking off one Lurker, then you might just become a genius from all the more fighting we're going to have to do!"

I shrugged and kept walking, shoving my newly scabbed hands into my pockets. "I hope I don't have to do any more killing…it certainly doesn't make me feel any smarter or better," I mumbled, then paused for a second. "…how come you're so okay with killing, anyway? I didn't see any Lurkers in the Crater."

"Oh, no, they're not there. All the bad things hang out in the Spider Cave. Heaps of huge insects run around in there, chewing on stuff they shouldn't be. Lots of Precursor stuff ended up down there as well, so the Red Sage sent me down there heaps to check out stuff," Zorna explained, following along behind me. I noticed how she used just used 'Red Sage' instead of father or another nickname she was often referred to him as. Perhaps she wasn't as over things as I thought she was.

"What about you? You ever at least fought?" she asked, tentatively stepping onto the flat ice in front of us. I shook my head, copying Zorna's actions as she slowly slid over the slippery surface. "Not for real, anyway. I just practiced with my father every now and then."

She quickly got the hang of it, and was soon gracefully sliding about. I, on the other hand, slowly edged myself across; scared my weight would break the ice holding us up. One careless footstep had me tumbling over myself, landing face first into ice with a thud. I slid some ways like that, until I gently ran into another of the force fields that surrounded a stump like the one we had activated the other day. When I tried to get up, I slid over again, which prompted many giggles from Zorna, who was still making her agile way around. "How are you even doing that?" I groaned, pulling myself across the ice on my stomach, feeling somewhat thankful that my chest plate was keeping my chest reasonably warm and dry.

"I dunno. Guess the grip of my boot must be made of different stuff. Go on, try and get up again!" she called out from across the icy lake, skating around in circles.

"Not unless you help me up!" I called back, struggling up into a sitting position, crossing my arms over my chest stubbornly. If there was one thing I had learnt with Zorna, just being a push over wasn't going to get me anywhere. I saw her roll her eyes and then slide over, offering her gloved hand out to me. I firmly took her hand and pulled myself up, sending her toppling down in the process. Already I could feel apologies forming in my mouth when she growled dangerously into the ice. "Egeus…!"

That began our chase over the slippery ice, me slipping and stumbling across the ice away from the angry Zorna, who had seemed to loose all her past grace, and was also having a hard time making it anywhere. "You get back here and apologise right now!" she yelled after me as I clawed my way behind one of the protected blockers. Zorna came into contact with the force field at full pelt, and was sent sprawling backwards. My apologies became two fold. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I am apologising! I just don't want to apologise in front of you!" I cried out after her, peering out from over the blocker. Zorna lay sprawled over the ice, unmoving. I knew the force field was strong, but was it really that strong that it could hurt somebody? Had I made my second kill? Had I actually killed her?

"No no no no no…" I fretted under my breath, crawling over to her on my hands and knees. There was still no movement. "Z-Z-Zorna? Are you okay?" I asked, gently prodding her side with a finger. "are you dead? I didn't mean for you to run into the blocker thingy. I was just hiding from you because you're scary when you're angry, and I don't like it when you're angry at me. I want to make you happy, so can you please get up? I'll let you pull me down onto the ice, if you want. You can even kick me and stuff while I'm down, I won't mind!"

A whole age of silence came as I knelt by her side, waiting for her to move. I shivered slightly as a cold wind blew through the mountains, and after a few more moments I neatened her out so her arms were tucked in at her sides, and her legs were straight. In the distance, I could hear a Lurker roar echo through the mountain side. I began to sit on my hands as my backside began to feel numb from the cold. Looking up, I could see the sky becoming overcast, which sent more chills down my spine. I didn't want to be out there when the weather turned nasty, especially with Zorna like this.

"Zorna?" I asked finally, painfully aware at how my voice cracked. "We need to move now. Please get up!" Tears for the second time that day began to well up in my eyes as she didn't reply. It had all started with my stupid decision to call her over, to help me up when I could have just as easily gotten up myself if I had tried. Or even before that, when I had suggested going up into the Snowy Mountains in the first place, just so I could see what was up there. She had never wanted to do any of that. If I had just listened to her, she would be moving and talking and happy once more.

I found myself coughing and choking, my whole head getting blocked with sadness. I tried to sniff it all away, but it just made it worse, bringing on more choking. "Zorna, please! I don't know what I'm meant to do without you! You can't just go now! We need to go to the Rock Village, and travel under the water and find the Oracle, just like the Queen Lurker said! I can't do that without you! Precursors, please, just open your eyes!" I began to wail for the first time in my life, shaking her arm desperately. "Please!" As I pleaded with her body, snow flakes began to drift down from on high, settling on my shoulders and hair, as well as resting on her bright red tunic, delicate face and eyelashes. I turned my face upwards, letting my tears roll down my face, body shaking with sobs of despair and grief. The fluids on my face began to freeze in the bitter cold, making my face feel stiff, only to get wetted again by another onslaught of tears as I began to feel whatever it was inside of me being torn apart.

Looking back down onto her body as a respite from the endless flurry of white, I became alarmed as I saw her being enveloped by the white snow flakes. Without thinking, I yelled up angrily at the sky, "No! I won't let you blank her out like everything else! She's okay, you hear me? She's going to get up! Go away! GO AWAY!" My screams were being whisked away by the ever growing wind, its howls becoming louder and louder. The snow suddenly began to beat down, quickly caking my back in its white ice. Panic flowing through me, I grabbed Zorna and held her to my chest, shielding her from the wind with my own body.

Without realising it, my hand had placed itself on the top of her chest, which brought embarrassed warmth to my cheeks, but also a whole blaze of hope in my heart as I could feel a heartbeat through her clothes. With this hope came resolution and a sharpened mind. I tried to look around for somewhere we could shelter, but the cold blizzard cut into my eyes mercilessly. It was then I remembered the goggles still strapped around my forehead, which I pulled down around my eyes.

Through the yellow tint, I properly examined where we were exactly. For one, we were in the middle of the icy lake, which meant I'd have to somehow navigate over it with Zorna. Behind us was the corner leading to the Dark eco dump, the Lurker fortress, and the ice cave. The fortress was obviously a no go, and the ice cave was too far away to go to in the blizzard conditions. The only way was forward, where there were some outlines of rocky out crops. I decided we could at least get behind them out of the wind, and figure out what to do from there.

I pulled up the scarf from around my neck above my mouth, and gently pulled Zorna's own goggles around her eyes. With a shaky hand, I fished into her breast pocket to get the large handkerchief which was peaking out of it and tied it around her nose and mouth, so it was all protected from the cutting wind. With this deed done, I hitched her onto my back, and began to crawl over the ice. I must have looked extremely silly, and any other person would say I was a wimp and should have run on my two feet, but I was no daring hero. I just did what I could the safest way I could and slowly crawled; making sure Zorna was safe, dangling over my back. After what seemed like hours of battling against the sleet, my hands sunk into the ever rising bank of snow around the ice, marking that half my battle was over. I pulled myself up into a crouch, and began to scuttle quickly over to the rocks, gritting my teeth as I felt the snow biting at my long ears. As soon as we were in the protection of the rocks, I slumped down, clutching Zorna to my chest once more.

Already I could see that this spot wasn't a viable place to wait out the blizzard, or for Zorna to recover. I squeezed my eyes shut, hugging her closer, willing myself to think. I couldn't let her down. In a way, this was my chance to prove to her that I was strong enough to travel with her, to protect her, and be her companion. _Maybe when she wakes up, I can try and explain to her what I feel on the inside, _I thought, but it was quickly pushed away. I needed to keep her alive before I could do anything like that. Even when she woke up, she'd blame me for what happened, and then all of that would have to be kept inside. But as long as she was alive, that's all that mattered.

I began to feel the frustration build up inside of me as I still couldn't think of what to do next. Frustration wasn't what I was used to feeling, and it resulted in me banging my fist down through the snow, where it hit something with a hollow clunk. This struck me as odd, since the ground didn't usually sound or feel like that. I began to feel around, brushing the snow away. Slowly, a dull bronze metal came into view. I didn't know what I expected to find, but I kept digging until I had revealed a whole large circle of metal. I banged on it again, and sure enough, there was a hollow sound. Excitement rising in me, I gently placed Zorna to the side and began to thoroughly expect the metal plate, and soon discovered it acted as a sort of lid when my fingers pried the side open. With a grunt, I pulled the whole thing up, and it fell to the side, revealing a shallow tunnel which lead away somewhere else.

It was going to have to do.

Cradling Zorna once more, I swung my legs down into the hole and slid down, testing how deep it really was. When I landed, the top of my head just barely peeked out over the top. As quickly as I could, before the snow began falling into the hole, I pulled the lid back over the top with one arm, shrouding us both in darkness. Slowly, I slumped back down, glad to finally be out of the bitter wind. It wasn't too much warmer in the tunnel, but it was certainly better than what it was out there. Making Zorna comfortable, using her own small pack as a pillow for her head, I began rooting around in my own for the blanket and pillow I had packed. Pulling them out sent other items tumbling out, but by that point I was beyond caring. I lay the blanket out over Zorna, and replaced her pack with my pillow so she was more comfortable.

For a moment I considered exploring down the tunnel, or staying up to watch of the girl, but my body was feeling fatigued even though it must have only been the early afternoon. Without thinking, I lay down next to Zorna, somewhat close so she could take advantage of my own body warmth, and let my eyes close.

Only moments later, we both became blissfully unaware of the raging storm above, both safe within the arms of sleep.


	13. Paper Trust

**I'm baaaack. And I realised I didn't put and author's note on the last chapter, which was pretty lame of me. Oh well, that one was bordering on 5,000 words as it was. This one is a pretty short chapter in comparison, about 3,000 words. Lame. Not much really happens hear either. Just a bit of filling in of what Olly, Raine, Jak and Daxter got up to whole Zorna and Egeus were duking it out with the Lurkers. Will they ever meet up? Hopefully. I'm getting there, don't you worry. Since there isn't much to review this time around, feel free to give me the down low on how you think things are coming along, what your favourite chapter has been, what I need to improve on (*cough*remembering to replace the mistakey chapters with the edited versions*cough*), perhaps a scene you would like to see play out, and your favourite character so far and why. It's a lot to review on, but hey, it'll help me bucket loads. :3 Luffs you all.**

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"How about you shut the fuck up? Precursors…"

That afternoon had certainly not gone to plan in the slightest.

After we had managed to pick ourselves off the beach, Daxter led us into the 'Forbidden Jungle'. Not only was the name absolutely terrible with no originality what-so-ever, but I could actually see why some hick out here had named it so. It was a hell hole of a place, an unnaturally humid even though it was right next to the coast. All sorts of cold blooded reptiles crawled and slithered around. Some even bore the collar similar to what the Lurker's wore; raising my suspicion that something else was going on. The only main thing of interest to me in that place was the large Precursor structure which stood shining in the middle of the forest for all to see.

How I would have loved to enter the great building, but apparently our 'Leader' had other priorities, such as asking the local fisherman if we could use his hovercraft. The man was quite portly and had a rough voice which was about as appealing as his smell. Apparently something had happened to his little fishing boat, and his hover craft was too loud to catch fish with, so he had to see what he could catch in the small river which ran through the jungle. As with all good adventures, there was a catch as to how we could acquire his boat for use; we had to catch two hundred or so pounds of fish for the fat lard.

Daxter was the first one up to bat, and with a sickening wink to Olethea who quite promptly turned her back, lay down on stomach, net trailing in water. As soon as a rather large yellow fish had swum into the net, the orange animal was dragged into the water with it, just another spectacular show of how weak he was. Not wanting to waste time there, I had threw off my shirt and pack, grabbed the net from the water logged animal, and positioned myself on the small bridge, eyes peering down into the water below. Whilst I was carefully scooping out fish of varying size from the river, avoiding some rather sick looking eels, my companions had broken into discussion with the fisherman.

"So, why do yer want ta' borrow me boat?" he asked gruffly, keeping a sharp eye on what I was doing.

"We need to get to Misty Island! Stuff be goin' down, and weee're the ones who have'ta fix it all!" explained Daxter, who was trying to push away my Muse who was sniffing him all over.

"Misty Island? Are you kids really off yer rockers? That be place be cursed, I tells yer! It lures all like a siren…then GOBBLES 'EM UP, poor souls. Bad things have happened there, I tell yer…bad things that the old Precursors have done."

Olethea preformed her duty as the voice of reason and down to earth logic. "We can't afford to fear superstitious tales. We will go over there, and we will sort out what's going on. What ever happened in the past there, with the Precursors, is irrelevant. What is happening there now is what we must worry about."

"Aw, don't have to go acting so brave in front of me, Olly…you can just stay here while your brave Daxter goes and sorts out those Lurkers!"

"…says the drowned rat."

"Hey! Don't be so cold! I know what you're doin', playin' hard to get…by the end of this, baby, you won't be able to get enough of me."

"Precursors help me."

"Now, don't you lot be getting' all confident about usin' me boat. I still might CHANGE me mind. And don't be thinkin' that the ol' Green Sage 'asn't passed word ta me about you two blighters got up to!" the fisherman warned, giving Daxter and Jak quite a glare, crossing his large arms over his chest.

"Grandpa Green? Seriously? Geez…I don't know why you guys are getting so steamed up about it. At least YOU didn't sprout orange fur and began to itch in places you never even THOUGHT could itch!" argued back Daxter, refusing to stand down. The fisherman sneered and advanced on Daxter, in the process stepping on my thinly bandaged foot with his own large one, causing me to bite down on my lip hard, fingers digging into the nadle of the net in pain. In my moment of pain, I had let a smaller green fish pass my the reach of the net, which the fisherman had somehow spotted. "Oh! Yer missed one! Better be more careful or I'll be TAKIN' BACK ME NET from ye."

As much as I wanted to give him lip for it, I somehow held my tongue and concentrated on the river, trying to ignore the pain which had coursed through my leg, and the way the late afternoon sun beat down on my back sickeningly. It was Daxter who really made me lose my cool. "Yeah, c'mon Raine, get your head in the game. If you screw it up for the rest of us, we're gonna have to leave you behind!" Thus sprouted my angry outburst from before.

"Geez, sooorryyy. Not my fault that you can't catch a few measly fish," Daxter muttered, sarcasm clear in his supposed apology. I was quick to scoop up my last large fish and slammed it down into the fisherman's big basket. "Done," I half growled at the bearded man, pulling on my blue vest which I had taken off in the first place to keep clean. "You owe us the boat. We'll return it unharmed, don't you worry." I think my last few words were too sharply pronounced, as the fisherman looked fairly taken aback, any triumphant whoop caught in his throat. Sheepishly, he pulled out a power cell from his pocket and offered it to me. "Er…for yer good work. Many thanks. Couldn't 'ave done a better job meself."

"Damn right," I muttered under my breath, shoving the power cell into my backpack roughly, shouldering it, and then shook his hand tightly. Olethea had already begun to pull herself up the steep cliff face with Jak following close behind her, keen to get away from the tension I had caused. Daxter gave a sort of suspicious look before leaping away to join Jak. I gave the fisherman one last nod and let go of his hand, turning to follow the rest of the group up, formulating a whole berating speech in my mind for Daxter. From behind me I could hear the fisherman warn, "It's a bad place, Misty Island. They say the Precursors made a cursed rock rise from the seas so they could store all that was bad on the world on it, and forget about it forever. You'll be a wise lad not to go there."

My pace faltered for a moment, but I continued on. I was in too deep to stop now.

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"First things first. I want to make it all clear to you now, that I'm leading this expedition. You need to follow what I say, when I say it. Understood? If I hear one more condescending word from your fucking little mouth, I'll leave you stranded on the island, you got that?" I growled at Daxter, barring his way down the small jetty. I had asked for a private word with him, however the anger and spite lacing my words caused them to be projected a lot louder than what I had intended. I could feel the two pairs of eyes from behind me burning into my back, and I could hear one pair of footsteps advancing back up the jetty. Daxter was looking desperately around me for help, and it came in the form of Jak who pulled me around by the shoulder, giving me a dark frown. I glared back, catching Daxter scrambling down the wooden planks to the hovercraft where Olethea was waiting, turned to look over the sea. The suns were setting, bathing the water in an angry looking orange.

After a few moments of silence between myself and the blonde man, I pushed my way past him. "What am I doing, wasting my time with a mute like you?"

This set something off in Jak, and he sent me sprawling with a sharp shove to my back. My Muse managed to jump off my shoulder in time before I hit the ground. My glasses weren't so lucky, and came flying off my face where I heard them crack as they hit the hard wood. Whilst I wasn't completely blind without them, it made my short-sightedness apparent, and Olethea now appeared like a sort of elongated green blob in the distance. In front of my face appeared my cracked glasses, which Jak was offering to me apologetically. I snatched them off of him and stood up, scowling at him hatefully. I had packed a spare pair of glasses, but I certainly hadn't expected to have to resort to them so early in the trip. "You stupid fool! Are you actually mentally retarded? Is that why you can't talk? Is that why you pushed me over? Is that why you look so frustratingly stupid? Is that it, Jak?" The blonde looked like he had been slapped in the face. Daxter's jaw had dropped, and even Olethea had turned and looked somewhat concerned, my Muse hiding by her neck, chittering nervously.

"All of you! You're all imbeciles! A rat who can't keep its mouth shut, a boy who can't even count to five because he can't talk in the first place, and a girl who can't express an emotion out side of an absent stupor and relies on 'Eco trips' just to keep her sane. Precursors, of all the people chosen to save the world, it just had to be you dimwits!" I cursed, marching down the pier to the metallic looking hovercraft, boarding it with an athletic leap over the side. I ignored the largely hurt or angry looks and started the vehicle with the keys that could already be found in the starter. "Get in. I'd leave you all behind, but it seems like I've been put with you all for a reason." Olethea didn't need to be told twice and pulled herself into the boat, sitting herself down near the back next to the large fan which would propel us. She didn't have to look at me; I could already feel the rage and hurt emanating from her. My Muse didn't even return to me, and instead curled up in her lap. Jak looked hesitant to get on board, but soon hauled himself up, getting over whatever it was that held him back. Since Daxter wasn't much without Jak, even though he wouldn't admit it, he followed his friend, making sure to give me a good snarl as he jumped up on Jak's shoulder, who had opted to sit opposite of Olethea. Without another moments notice, I revved the engine, and took off across the orange sea.

As much as I acted remorseless for my outburst, inside I felt somewhat hurt that I had become a bully; an enemy, even. There was no way that I would be on good terms with the other three for a long while, and it seemed as if even my Muse had turned its back on me. For the first time in my life, I truly felt alone, even though I had all that company. Or, I think it was that I had always felt alone, and for those few hours where I had been apart of a group working towards the same cause, I had 'friends', the sort of people I could talk to about anything that was worrying me. Sure, back in the Rock Village I had my father, but that was a different sort of relationship I couldn't really explain. The sort where you relied on the other for guidance and basic sustenance. But now that I had gone and insulted them all, I had no friends, and I was alone once more.

Trying to forget my troubles, I cast my eyes upward to sky, which was as equally as orange as the water we skipped across. The island was still just a black shape in the distance, and it didn't seem like we were going to get there before night fall. For a moment, I cursed the strange impulse I got when I became angry. It would have been smarter to just stay in the village and wait for the next day, where we would have light, and the tensions between us all would have died down a bit.

In fact, I cursed my sudden change in temperament I seemed to have gone through since I arrived at Sandover. I used to be an even headed young man with a strong grip over my emotions and thoughts, but it seemed as if that had all been thrown out the window. I was all but just an angsty teenager it seemed, the thought bringing a wry smile to my face. That was all any of us were. Just teenagers, no more than sixteen. Sixteen year olds sent out to save the world from age old Dark Sages, with far more experience, wit and cunning. The odds certainly weren't in our favour, and from what the Oracle had said before, it seemed as if luck hadn't been with our predecessors either.

Or perhaps, the preceding us.

After making sure the boat was going on course for the island, I turned around and sat myself down, giving a brief look over the other occupants, all of which looked as if they were wallowing in their own troubled thoughts. Apart from Daxter, who looked pleasantly asleep leaning against Jak's elbow. Quietly, I opened my pack and dug around for some food. In all that had happened, I had completely forgotten about lunch, and my stomach was turning over itself with hunger. I managed to find some neatly wrapped up hunks of bread which I immediately tore into. Olethea stirred out of her thinking and turned her head slightly to register what I was doing.

"Boat going in right direction?"

"Yes, it is. The controls are remarkably simple. If you feel we're going off course, you can always correct it yourself," I mumbled behind a mouthful of bread, gesturing over to the rudder at the back of the boat. She merely nodded, and began to dig through her own bag for something to eat. "What you said was wrong, you know," she said quietly, pulling out two very large red apples, throwing one to Jak, who jolted slightly as it hit him. This caused Daxter's head to fall into his lap, to which he grimaced, trying to shuffle away without waking the sleeping Ottsel. "Perhaps," I replied softly, nibbling at what was left of my first bit of bread, shoving the others back into my bag for later. "It certainly wasn't nice, but there was truth in it."

"I…suppose." Olethea half heartedly bit into her apple, keeping her eyes down. Jak seemed to have an ashamed blush on his cheeks, but if he did want to ask about Olethea's habits, he had no way of communicating it. Daxter gave a large snore and turned around in his friend's lap, mumbling something under his breath.

"I apologise for breaking the trust you had placed in me by sharing your secret like that. That was wrong of me," I murmured over the ever present hum of the engine of the boat and splash of water. I tilted my head back so it rested on the side of the boat, closing my eyes behind the cracked glasses, and felt a furred head push under my hand. As I gently scratched the blue Muse behind its large ears, the sombre Olethea noted, "Trust is much like a piece of paper. Once it has been crumpled, it can never be perfect once more."

"…I see." My throat closed up uncomfortably hearing this, and I knew that for now on I would be treading dangerous waters with her, if not the rest of the group. It wouldn't stop me from lashing out, but I had no doubt that I would suffer the consequences later. "Better get some sleep. I estimate we've got a good few hours until we reach Misty Island at the speed we're going, and we certainly won't be able to rest once we're there. It'll be a simple mission; we'll examine the area Jak and Daxter claimed to have seen our adversaries, and see what we can learn from the place. Until then."

With that, I rested my head on my pack, and curled myself up into a ball with Muse by my side, reaching out into the deep abyss of sleep which would soothe my bleeding conscious.


	14. The Landing

**Oh. Mah. Lawd. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? I am actually updating this after over a year. Wooooah man. Why has it taken this long? Life, basically. I'm still in school, truth be known, and these later years demand A LOT. Crippling writer's block does not help either. This chapter actually helped to loosen that up somewhat. If you're an old reader, I suggest reading through everything again to get a gist of what is going on, and if you're new here...I hope you've read the 13 chapters before this. ;o Jak and Daxter: The Precursor's Legacy belongs solely to Naughty Dog. I take no credit for any of the game's original characters.**

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The dull whirring of the propeller driving us onwards was all that filled the silence blanketing the boat, speeding onwards towards our destination, Misty Island. Raine's prior outburst had left many sore feelings, feelings that wouldn't be healed with a half-hearted apology. As I slowly turned the apple in my hand, I looked up into the fading orange sky. Darkness was slowly creeping across the large dome, and it was only a matter of time before night proper fell upon us.

I took a larger bite from my apple, despite not feeling even the faintest inklings of hunger. Opposite to me, Jak simply stared at the fruit he had in hand, his mind obviously far from comprehending eating, dwelling on other things. I looked at him for a long moment, pondering what really could have been going through his head. Raine had said some despicable things to him, and I wondered how much he had taken to heart. Whilst Jak was certainly no genius by any stretch of the imagination, he certainly didn't suffer mentally. He was usually quite calm, just taking every day as it came; content to spend his days in happiness with his friends. I couldn't think if he did have any aspirations for the future; he was just _there_.

Jak was quite the mystery. No parents to speak of and no one to vouch as family other than one old man who claimed to be his uncle. Even then, Jak spent more time with Samos than him, the Green Sage becoming much like his grandfather. Samos did have quite the connection with Jak, and thus sprouted my jealousy. To me it seemed he cared more about the young man than anyone else bar Kiera, despite his gruff attitude toward the former. In comparison, the relationship I had with my own father seemed dry. It was if he didn't really _know_ me. Not personality wise, but more as if I were foreign to him.

With the information having come recently to light, it appeared one thing was certain. Samos knew a lot more about things than what he was letting on. Having done my own thinking in the quiet placed upon us, it appeared from what the Oracle had said, it was no mere coincidence that Jak was travelling with the rest of the group. The timing of Daxter's accident and the beginning of the apprentices quest was too uncanny, too pre-considered. Thus I was quite determined to question the old Sage when we returned from that accursed place, Misty Island, despite whatever backlash I would gain. The mysteries we had been presented with demanded solving if we were ever to get a full grasp on what we were actually doing.

A few more minutes passed, and it came apparent that both Daxter and Raine were soundly asleep. I felt no tiredness tugging on my eyes and the way Jak fidgeted uncomfortably, Daxter making strange grabs at his thigh in his sleep, demonstrated he felt the same way. I cleared my throat, the sound of which nearly made us both jump, the sound almost jarring after what felt like hours of the near hypnotising hum of the engine. Jak turned his gaze to me expectantly, and for a brief moment I questioned why I had bothered making such a sound.

"We could always throw him overboard," I said quietly, almost dipping down into a whisper.

Jak's eyes widened, and shot to the curled up figure of Raine at the front. His gaze lingered for only a moment, returning to mine almost as quickly. His eyebrow rose, and he looked as if to say, _"What? Him? Why?"_

"Throw him off to teach him a lesson. Do you really want him to get away with what he said unpunished?" What had started as a morbid jest in my mind was starting to form into something far more sinister.

Jak's head bowed, his bound fists clenching for a brief moment. His shoulders slumped, and he shook his head. _"No. But…we can't, that's just wrong."_

"I know. It was a joke. Don't worry."

"_Olethea?"_

It was easy for someone who had known Jak since an extremely young age to understand what he was trying to communicate. It was all there in the smallest of movements, the twitch of an expression, a flicker of the eye. As a child it was just so easy to pick up on, and then sticks. He had never uttered a word since my earliest memories of him. I think it helped that I was never much of a talker either, preferring my body language to get across what I thought.

"Yes?"

"_You don't have to worry about what he said."_

"What?" A sharpness came about my tone as he mentioned this, a frown creasing my forehead. The mere fact he was mentioning Raine's prior outburst concerning me was worry enough.

"_Just...don't worry…"_

Jak's sudden elusiveness got me on edge. Was he really referring to my habit? Or was he just disagreeing with what the other boy had said. My mind desperately worked through the many trips I had taken up to the Canyon. Each time I was so sure that I was completely alone, though nerves were always prone to addling some senses. There was every possibility that he could have seen or heard me leave one night, and out of curiosity followed...

The rest of the trip was in relative silence. Occasionally Daxter would make a strange noise, and Raine woke briefly to check if we were still on course (thankfully unaware of the conversation that had gone on without him), but otherwise not another word was uttered. The weather was quite clear, and the cool sea breeze did not cut uncomfortably at the skin. Despite the inner anger simmering, and troubling thoughts plaguing my mind, it was peaceful. Had it been with better company and under any other circumstance, I wouldn't doubt that it could have been an enjoyable ride.

As we approached the island, the pleasant weather which had been accompanying us seemed to fade into a thick mist, which only got thicker the further we sailed in. It got to a point where I could barely see the hand in front of my face, and in my panic I reached for the rudder, keeping us steady on course. Jak had also risen, careful not to disturb the sleeping two, and was peering into the foggy darkness, trying to determine how far we were from our destination. His sudden frantic hand movements to slow down indicated we were much closer than expected, and sure enough, we burst through the cloudy cover to see the dark island looming upon us.

Slowing our speed considerably, I steered the hovercraft along the shore looking for a viable place to park, which came in the form a sort of impromptu jetty. Motley posts jutted out from the grey water, the planks between them were few and far in between, making the whole structure look rather unstable. Parking parallel to what could be best described as the wooden heap, I switched the engine off, whilst Jak worked quickly to secure the boat.

The quiet quickly closed in upon us, my head still feeling almost fuzzy from the sudden change to complete stillness. I felt myself hold my breath, standing completely stationary at the helm as if I expected the land mass to lurch forward and devour us should the slightest whisper be made. Jak too was standing rigid on the precarious jetty, carefully examining the black rock before us. Surprisingly, the other two still slept despite our somewhat jerky landing. Daxter now lay sprawled across the deck, whilst Raine had simply curled up tighter in a ball around his Muse. Looking at the blue creature reminded me of something, though I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Something lost?

I was brought out of my thought by a large creak, making me nearly jump out of my skin. Heart racing, I whirled around, to see Jak had shifted his weight slightly, crossing his arms whilst looking down at those left in the boat. He gestured to the sleeping two as if to ask, _"Should we wake them up?"_

I shook my head, finally moving from my position to haul myself up onto the jetty, cringing as it groaned under my weight. A quick look confirmed it hadn't woken the other two up. "Might as well let them catch up on some sleep. We won't head out that far. Just look around here," I murmured to him, turning to look at the shore. For the time being it looked empty, though if Jak and Daxter's reports were to be believed, the island was crawling with Lurkers.

With a quick nod to each other, we pushed onwards, finally stepping foot on the land. The ground felt cold and hard to my bound feet, and much rougher than anything I had experienced before. Running around barefoot for most of one's life did make the feet harden, but on this island was something different. If the mere look of it repelled someone, and this feeling backed that notion up all the more.

I felt a shiver run up my back as I wandered forwards, Jak following warily behind. "You should take the lead," I told him, raising my volume to a normal level. It sounded almost like a shout in the dead silence. "You actually know where you're going."

Jak hesitantly picked up his pace as to surpass me, and lead me around in a circle on the broad shore. It was extremely dim as a mysterious cloud cover, which had seemed non existent on our approach, had blocked the light of the moon, and the primitive torches that were sticking haphazardly out of the ground were now unlit.

To the left there seemed to be a strange dull white formation protruding from the cliff face and into the ground. On closer inspection it was a huge skeleton - from a beast I hoped I'd never have to face alive. As we passed through what I assumed to be it's rib cage I could only imagine what it must have been like in life, it's immense size requiring tons of food to keep moving. Had it been a carnivore, I had no doubt that we would have been occupying the space we stood now as chewed up giblets.

Other than bones of varying sizes which littered the dark stony sand, and large black angular rocks pointing out from the ground, there was nothing to be found on the beach. Returning to the base of the jetty, now feeling slightly more confident, we peered into the boat. The other two were still dead to the world, and showed no signs of stirring, causing me to cross my arms impatiently and Jak to roll his eyes.

"_Sure we can't wake them up?" _Jak gestured, looking more fed up than before.

"We could, but…if we do now, they might get loud. You know how Daxter is," I said rather pointedly, raising my eyebrow at him. "I think we'll just press on a little further in. We'll be quieter with just the two of us."

With the nod of agreement given, we quickly strode up the beach once more and to some flat rocky out cropping which looked traversable. _"Up there," _indicated Jak, pulling himself onto the first platform. I quickly followed, and soon we stood at the top of the small cliff, looking over a most horrifying sight. Below us was a bottomless gorge, thick mist wisping up from the depths. Rising up from the mist were several rocky stacks, and between them lay skeletons of beasts that must have been even larger than that on the beach. But that wasn't the worst of it. Patrolling around the area were several groups of Lurkers, some of which stood much taller than the average purple Lurker, armoured in bones and wielding large clubs.

"Precursors…" I breathed, looking over the area in fear. "How are we meant to get across that?"

Jak looked at me solemnly, pointing towards the small natural clumps of Blue Eco floating about the area, and then to a bronzish structure in the distance, easily recognizable as that of one of the Precursors'. His jaw tensed, yet a little smile formed on his mouth as his fist gently met his open palm.

This was a gesture that required little interpretation.

The sear of Blue Eco flowing through my body was a bitter sweet reminder of the night before as we pelted forwards at speeds almost unseeable, attacking the first large bone guard with flying fists and kicks. The crunch of it falling beneath our blows was overly satisfying. If there was one way to vent bridled anger, it was this. The speed saw us hurtling over the pits below us effortlessly, and any attempts of the Lurkers to land a hit missed by miles. In our wake we left bodies of Lurkers from all walks of life, none safe from our rampage. The practice we had on Sentinel Beach in years prior had definitely paid off, and the augmentation of Blue Eco made the fighting all the easier. Before we even realised it, we had sped into the hatch in the side of the Precursor structure. With a metallic clang it shut behind us, and we were left doubled over, panting after our crazed run.

"That was actually…sort of fun…" I puffed, looking to Jak with a tired smile. It struck me as I looked to him that I felt no prick of jealousy, just kinship. Over the years of knowing each other we had never developed the sort of strong friendship he had with Daxter, despite our near constant contact with each other. It seemed odd, and I realised I had no one to blame for that other than myself.

"_Yeah!" _Jak agreed enthusiastically, giving me the thumbs up. This attitude faltered as we looked towards our entry point, which now appeared completely sealed. Most Precursor technology was activated with Blue Eco, this door being no different. With none of the stuff around, it didn't seem as if we were getting out that way once more.

Tentatively we stepped forward, the metal flooring making an almost musical hollow sound with each foot fall. The bronzed patterns which matched in shape of the closed in space slowly became more and more ornate, until it came to a peak around this certain sub-section. Within the middle of the area was a smaller indented circle, which would have been cut through the middle with a line had there not been huge braces along its length, as if to keep something sealed shut.

"Wonder what this is?" I asked to myself, stepping down into the indent. This made the ground reverberate, causing me to quickly move back onto firmer ground. Whatever it was that was so special about the middle, it was certainly made of something much thinner.

I was about to relay this information to the piqued looking Jak when suddenly I went blind. My sense was blocked out by a white green light, which seemed to burn through even my closed eye lids. Instinctively I brought my hands up to my face not a moment later, and that is when I heard a chorus of roars. The ground vibrated under foot, causing me to stumble into Jak who seemed to be suffering in the same way as I did. As if blocking out one of my senses wasn't enough, my ears were then filled with a thunderous racket, as if a thousand feet were stomping on the metallic surface below.

Finding myself back to back with Jak, we blindly shuffled to the centre, the shocking vibrations only becoming more apparent on the thinner metal. The sound was only getting louder and the quakes stronger still. Despite the painful glare, I cracked open my eyes, trying to adjust my vision. Out of the white came dark silhouettes, and from the shape I made out colours – dark blue, purple, bright yellow—

I heard a scream, and a shout.

My eyes flew open, despite the pain, just in time to see our assailants. A horde of Lurkers bore down on us on all sides.

There was no escape.


	15. Great Escape

**This is long. You've been warned. Bit of everything here. Following Zorna once more. I will admit, this chapter came much easier than the last. So that's good, right? And I apologise for any typos and bad grammar, I finally finished this rather late, so ye, TTTC (too tired to check). This may have come earlier had technology not flipped out, but what can you do? Read, and if you were to review, that would be greatly appreciated.  
Normal disclaimers apply.**

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"Uhg…"

The groan emitted from my throat was the first sign to me that I was actually still alive.

Everything hurt. Pain seared from head to toe, as if I had been in a full body collision with a Zoomer. Inside, it felt as if everything had melted into a disgusting pool of acid and flesh goop. Said slurry was slowly creeping up what was left of my throat, and instinctively I rolled to the side as to not choke. Cold, wet, slushiness met my face, and for a split moment it was soothing.

That was before what felt like a billion needles stabbed into every square inch of my body whilst I was being dipped in magma pool sort of pain racked my frame.

I would have cried out, but it seemed like an effort far beyond what I was capable of. All I could do instead was relax my body, and let the pain fade away to a more manageable throb.

My brain was still way out of focus, and it was yet to occur to me to actually open my eyes to suss out where I was. I knew I was at least still in the mountains; the snow in my face was proof enough of that. Was I back in the Lurker lair? Perhaps they wanted us back? Did they realise I killed some of their stinking number?

Thoughts were floating through my mind, pictures of what had just recently happened, all out of order and frustratingly out of my reach.

I took a deep breath in, wincing at the burning in my lungs. I needed to concentrate. I took a moment to let my mind finally sharpen, and went about finally putting things in order.

Egeus and I had been abducted by the Snow Lurkers.

_Egeus!_

Alarm bells went off in my head. Where was he? In my panic I floundered about, eyes flying open and jolting upright. In that sudden adrenaline rush even the pain felt subdued, though as I whirled my head in an effort to see him, it became obvious he wasn't around. I found I was in a sort of tunnel, sitting in a sort of make shift bed, alone. There was no sign of my companion, other than his pack which lay haphazardly against the wall behind me. However, as my eyes slowly adjusted to the dim, I could see there was a faint yellow glow which applied itself gently to the surroundings. A beacon of hope in my literally dark times, I crawled towards the source.

Opposite my bed, there appeared to be a crystal wedged into the wall. I gently dislodged it from the ice by the dark cord attached, and examined it in my palm. Already I could tell it was some form of concentrated crystallised Yellow Eco. I could recognise the feel of it from anywhere thanks to my use of it in the Spider Cave, where it flowed freely from the weird vents. This, however, was much, much more powerful than anything I had channelled. It was a wonder it hadn't shattered already from the pressure. It was brilliant yellow in colour, and had appeared to have been carefully cut into a rectangular prism, which at one end converged into a point. The other end had a bronzed metal much like that of the Precursors' welded onto it, which supported the clasp the cord ran through, creating the necklace. The cord was rough, but looked incredibly strong. I definitely knew that it wasn't anything of mine, so I could only assume it was just here, or belonged to Egeus. If it was his, why did he leave something that looked so precious here?

Sitting cross legged on the end of the blanket which had been my bed, I shivered as I felt something trickle down my back. I reached stiffly back, patting down my tunic with some difficulty in my sore state, and I realised just how wet I was. Apparently I had been sleeping on the bare ground that whole time, however long that was. The frigid air did not make the situation any better, and only served to remind me of just how cold I was. I nearly missed the mildly warm confines of the blanket.

Holding the crystal had a calming effect, the panic subsiding. I set my mind back to the task of recalling what had happened, thinking back to the point where we had been abducted. The leader of the Lurkers had talked to us, and she had revealed the news. News which instantly brought back the feeling of wanting to smash something, only to be backed up with a good dose of not caring about anything, anything at all. To me, that was an awesome feeling to hold onto, and it wasn't one I was going to let go of any time soon. This sudden resoluteness helped to quickly back up the rest of the picture. Walking back through the mountains, I'd killed two of the Lurkers with my sword and then we had come to a frozen over lake. I had gracefully slid over the ice, whilst Egeus, much to his nature, had fallen over. I tried to help him up, but he pulled a fast one and pulled me over. I was chasing him, first out of anger, then just playfully, and then—

I hit a blank. I remembered tumbling forward towards him, then plain nothingness. Try as I might, nothing more came to mind. That was just making me all the more frustrated, and so putting on the necklace as to not lose it, I restlessly I stood up, almost crumpling to my knees not a moment later. My head spun sickeningly, my balance seemed to completely leave me, causing me to stagger off into the wall beside me. Whether I liked it or not, I had to take a moment to adjust to the explosion of pain ripping mercilessly through my body. In a way this only served to feed my re-found anger, though at the same time kept it in check, giving me something to focus on.

When the pain came down to a manageable proportion, I left the safety of the wall to properly look around.

The first thing that caught my attention as I stood up was that I no longer had my sheath or sword attached to my belt. I stood much lighter without it, though the safety of having it on my person was way too good to pass up. A quick scan of the area revealed it to be right next to the pillow of all places, sword conveniently placed within its specialised holding. I didn't know if the sudden blindness to the obvious was all part and parcel of the pain, but it did make me feel like a dolt. I stooped to grab it, ignoring the wave of dizziness successfully that time, and with ease buckled it back on. How it got removed from my person in the first place was as much a mystery as how I even got there. Placing my hand to the hilt, I was reminded of how I had, presumably only hours earlier ended life with the blade. I recalled how that just as I drove the sharpened metal length I thought of my promise to my father, and how it was with grim joy I completely disregarded it. Precursors, we could have easily avoided a fight with the Lurkers had I not provoked them. But I couldn't help myself. I needed to get out that pent up anger, and wetting my sword with their blood for a little 'take that' to Red just made it all the sweeter. Reckless, though it ended up in victory. Worth it?

Maybe.

I finally took the time to actually properly inspect my surroundings. As I had determined before, I was in some sort of snowy passageway or tunnel. The tunnel was at least a head taller than me, and sort of cylindrical. Without the crystal to illuminate it, it sort of had a dim, natural blue glow. To the left was a dead end, but above on the ceiling there appeared to be a hatch of some sort. To the right, the tunnel split off in to two different directions. I quickly peered into each; it seemed as if they had been both blocked off with snowy boulders. These would not budge, so it was safe enough to say it was completely closed in.

There was something else quite odd about the place. It had a particular smell I couldn't quite place. It was nothing compared to the horrible smell of sulphur I used to wake up to gag on, but it was still there. It was a sort of musty wet smell with a bite to it, despite it all being snow. I would have even gone so far to call it slightly familiar.

I decided to give up my exploring for the time being and went back to sit on the blanket. It had only then dawned on me that it wasn't actually mine, along with the pillow. Mine sported colours much like my vest, whereas these were an extremely light brown. Looking over to Egeus' bag, I realised just how deflated it looked compared to when he had been wearing it before. Despite my pain, my exhaustion, my emotional anger and weariness, I just couldn't help but smile, gently squeezing the coarse yet felt like material below me. I was by no means overly religious, but sent a silent prayer for his safety to the Precursors. Through our journey, he had really done nothing but look out for me, and my deeply repressed soft side was doing flips of appreciation and happiness, that were sort of catching on. No matter how hard I tried to tell myself it was stupid, and that he had no right to mother over me after only a day of knowing me…I was caving in. The guy really cared, and I was for whatever damn crazy reason responding and caring back.

Was that what it was like to actually accept true friendship?

I mulled over that thought as I moved to the side to carefully fold up the blanket, and with the pillow, slid it back into the pack. Having a friend was good. Not the sort of friend you used to get your way with, but a friend friend. I never really had a proper friendship before. My relationship with the miners that had moved in a few years ago was playfully antagonistic at best, and Red wasn't really a friend, but a father.

"_And apparently a pretty crappily secretive one at that," _I huffed mentally, rocking back on my heels momentarily to decide what to do next. All I had left to do was open the hatch and actually see where I was. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to actually reach it, let alone get out in my sore state, but I figured I'd manage it somehow.

Standing directly underneath the circular metal trapdoor, I tried reaching up to it, finding that I could place my palm flat on the underside. It's iciness felt like it burned, causing me to quickly flinch away, cradling my hand with my other to warm it back up. From just that quick touch I could tell that it was heavy, much heavier than I could hope to move with just my hands. I considered the crystal around my neck. I had no doubt that I could use the Yellow Eco present to actually blast the lid open, though it wasn't really mine to use. From I knew of my father's smithing and crafting, it must have been cut to fit some sort of purpose, and I highly doubted it was this one.

I took a step back from the hatch, hands on hips. It seemed as if I had no option but to wait for someone to open it from the outside. This to me seemed highly unlikely to happen any time soon. Even if it had been Egeus' choice to come here and leave, what was to say he wouldn't come back? What if he had been taken by force? What if this was _meant_ to be a prison?

I was jumping to conclusions now.

"_I need out," _I thought to myself, trying to examine to examine the covering even closer. _"If I stay down here much longer, I'm going to go crazy. I think too much, damn it."_

An idea sprung to mind when my hand had unconsciously brushed over the hilt of the sword.

_"Zorna, this blade was made specifically for you. It was created with the strongest Precursor metal I could find, and infused with highly concentrated Red Eco. It could theoretically pierce anything, and easily parry off anything that it couldn't cut."_

It was time to test just how strong it really was.

I drew the blade, extending it to its full length. In the dark of the tunnel you could actually see how it pulsed red. For his faults, my father could make some pretty damn beautiful stuff. He wasn't kidding when he had said it was the pinnacle of his work—it was above and beyond any workmanship I had ever seen, and to my knowledge, he was the _best_.

If only he had seen how I was going to use it.

On tippy toes, I gently wedged the tip of the blade between the lid and its base, opposite to what I assumed was the hinges. Gripping onto the hilt with both hands, I took a breath, and then with all my strength pulled downward.

He wasn't kidding. The sword did not give an inch, and instead the hatch popped open. Despite my muscles screaming in agony, I guided the top over and back from the entrance with the flat of the blade. In return I got a nice pile of snow to the face. I was beyond caring. The frosty fresh air burnt my lungs gloriously, and I swear the sweetness was the taste of freedom. I wasted no time in retracting and sheathing my blade, so with both hands I could pull myself out.

Half way up, my strength failed me.

I had managed to get my torso up and out, but my lower half still dangled, legs kicking uselessly at thin air. Pain and tension gripped my body, and the cold sharp metal of the base was digging uncomfortably into my stomach. My top had ridden up, so half my back was exposed. I didn't even care. Half freedom was better than no freedom. Being stuck in a hole is NOT one of my favourite pass times, let me tell you that.

Half my vision was filled with snow, though the upper half provided a clear view of a large rock. It was dark grey, sprinkled with white snow and glittering with frost. It was my favourite rock. Freedom Rock, I had called it. From the looks of Freedom Rock, it was day light. This threw me slightly. Was it daylight from the day I got knocked out, or was it daylight from the day after? Or the day after that? How long had it actually been?

I needed to keep my arms moving lest I got frozen in place. What a wonderful surprise that would have been for whoever came past here next. I could see it now. Someone just casually strolling through the mountains, going to the peak for the view. Looking at the ground, and seeing a strange shaped hole in the ground. Wondering what that strange thing was clinging to the side. Brushing off the snow to see a frozen girl, completely blue, half hanging out in perhaps the most ungracious way possible. Eyes endlessly gazing towards the rock behind them.

Snapping out of my day dream, I knew in all seriousness I couldn't joke around. The cold was biting at my bare back, and my wet clothes weren't making it any more comfortable. I'd have to either drop back into the tunnel, or pull myself up. Deciding the former was not an option, I geared myself up for the final pull.

I somehow managed to dig my numbed hands into the iced dirt in front of me. Using that as a hold, I gathered whatever warmness and strength I had left in me, and pulled. Slowly, excruciatingly so, I edged upward, towards Freedom Rock. My hips were scraping clear, and soon after that my knees. Unceremoniously, and I think in the perhaps clumsiest motion the world had ever seen, I rolled onto my back, finally clear of my trapping.

Instead of Freedom Rock I now looked upon the grey wintry sky. It wasn't bright, it wasn't celebratory, but it was there, and so was I.

After my adventures, I felt exhausted. I wouldn't be moving for a long time yet. My hands were numb. My feet were numb. My midriff was exposed, and that was getting numb. A gurgle from my stomach reminded me that I was hungry. I was sure to thank it. I wouldn't doubt I'd have been thirsty too had it not been for the snow melting on my lips, allowing me to part my lips and get some nourishment from that. Sleepiness began pulling at my eyelids, but I wouldn't allow them to close. I'd been warned about that from Red when I had first asked about what it was like up in the snow. For whatever reason, your body sort of begins shutting down in the cold, and if you were to fall asleep exposed, you'd never wake up. I wondered if that was what was happening to me. If I'd just drift off right here, and never wake up again.

I supposed it wasn't all that bad. I had Freedom Rock for company. That was something. I wouldn't have to continue on with whatever it was we were tasked in doing. Some artefact? Rock Village…? …stopping…someone…

_The five senses._

What?

_Sound. The waves gently wash up on the beach. The cry of a native water bird. The occasional soft bellowing of a yakow. The rhythmic turning of the windmill._

Waves? Beach? Surely not.

_Sight. The bright blue sky, patterned with fluffy white clouds. Bright green grass abound. Yellow warm beaches. Sturdy houses with thatched straw rooves._

No. That wasn't right.

_Scent. Fresh caught fish. The salty sea breeze. The sweet fresh grass. A delicious pie being baked in the small town below._

The hell? Am I really…?

_Taste. The cleanest air in the entire world._

I could give it that one.

_Touch. Clean, soft, undirtied clothes. Bouncy, ever so slightly dew covered grass. Warm sun on skin._

Nope. Definitely wasn't it.

I opened my eyes, sat up painlessly, and looked about. I was in a place I swear I'd never been in, but remembered from somewhere. The description was right. There was bright green grass. There was a blue sky. There were buildings, a beach. A huge expanse of water that surrounded everything. I stood up to turn around, and discovered I was in front of a large multi-story building made of rough-hewn stone blocks. The inside of each open layer was furnished with a dark wood, and at the very top there was perched that windmill I could hear.

I turned to the town below. It was all built in the similar style to this main structure. To the left of it appeared to be a long beach, and sticking out of the water a long way away was a great big white thing. It was all so colourful and nice looking.

"Zorna!"

That was familiar. Would I never be able to explore this place?

"Zorna, what are you doing out here?"

"Ngh."

My eyes shot open for the second time, and I found myself looking directly into the dark face of Egeus. His bandanna was hanging loosely around his chin, and his goggles were up on his forehead, which revealed the peeling skin on his cheeks. Previously burnt by the heat of the lava, the cold was doing it no favours either. Compulsively I wanted to peel the skin off, but in my numb state I had no means of rising to the task, literally.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked again, concern having consumed his face. "How did you even manage to get out? The last time I saw you-"

I cut him off. "Climbed."

It surprised me to hear how blocked up I sounded. I closed my eyes once more, and I could feel him pull down my shirt and vest to cover me. I raised an eyebrow at this, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Zorna, you're not well enough to do this. You nearly died before, you know that? You were barely even breathing!" Egeus fussed. I opened my eye a crack, only to see his genuinely upset face. I sighed.

"Well…shit."

"Do you mind if I pick you up?"

I rocked my head side to side. I was shivering now, quite violently. It was beginning to dawn on me just how dumb this was. What was I expecting by getting out here?

I felt myself being gently cradled in the larger man's arms like a doll. There was a slight jolt, which indicated we were back in the tunnels. I never even got a glimpse of Freedom Rock.

"We need to get you off of this mountain," said Egeus, sounding confident in his decision. He gently propped me up against the tunnel wall, and set about doing something with the packs. I missed the warmth already. "We're going to get you back to the Red Sage's hut and to a proper bed where it's warm, and you're going to get better."

"Not allowed back there. Remember?" I mumbled, flopping my head in his direction. Finding the energy to keep my eyes properly open, I watched him pull out his blanket from the pack again and drape it over my figure.

"Well, I'm sure in this case it's allowed. I'll explain. And if you're really not allowed…" He trailed off, furrowing his brow.

"Yes?"

Egeus set his jaw, his golden eyes meeting mine. "Then I'll _demand_ you be able to stay." He promptly set about packing up at double time, strapping up our back packs tightly.

"Precursors, Egeus…you really know how to get your way, don't you?" I couldn't help but chuckle. His statement had just been so innocent, and coming from a softie like him it was comparable to committing genocide.

"I-uhm…yeah. I guess…"

Whatever had given Egeus his conviction before had subsided, dropping back into his old habit of stumbling over his words. Even the old head scratch appeared as he stood slightly hunched, looking around for something.

"Are you missing anything, by chance?"

"Uh, yeah. It sounds stupid, but it was this sort of necklace. My dad gave it to me and all, and told me to look after it, so…"

"Say no more." Somehow I managed to pull out the crystal from under my shirt, so it lay glowing on my chest. "This what you want?"

"Oh! Yeah. That's it." Egeus looked pleased for the first time I'd seen him that day. "You've got it."

"It sure seems like it," I habitually retorted, sarcasm tugging at my words. Mentally, I groaned. So much for showing care back. I had only snubbed him thus far. I shook my head, and tried a different approach. "You can take it. I mean, it actually yours, after all. I didn't have any right to take it in the first place," I bit my lip, and willed myself to say it. "…sorry."

"No no, that's fine. I don't mind at all. It actually looks kinda nice on you. I'd prefer it if you looked after it, to be honest," A sort of goofy smile spread across his face. "Though only if you stay out of trouble."

"I don't know about that. You know me…trouble finder extraordinaire," I smiled weakly back, trying to suppress a cough. "How about we get going, though? It's been a nice change of scenery and all, but it's left a mark on me. I'm more of a volcano girl, you know?"

Egeus nodded, his smile not faltering for a second. "Yeah, you're right. The snow is cool and all, but it's the magma life for me!"

What kind of person would I be if I called him out on that?

Egeus went ahead and shouldered one of the packs, throwing the other outside for later collection. He then picked me up- blanket and all- with the same care as always, and hoisted me out, letting me sit on the rim as he pulled himself out, with far more finesse than I had shown before. Not only did he then put the other pack on his free shoulder, but then picked me up as well, closing the strange hatch with his foot. The strain barely even showed as he steadily walked on, face stoic.

I swear I had only closed my eyes for a moment, though when a stop in the rocking movement commanded them open once more, I saw we were at a halt in front of the old wooden gondola. How he had managed such a smooth journey was beyond me. I seemed as if it had been an age since I had last seen the old thing, and for once it was an extremely welcome sight.

"You can put me down, now. I'm sure I can make it the rest of the way on foot," I said, and indignant tone creeping into my voice.

Egeus appeared oblivious.

Supporting me on one knee, he carefully worked the two packs into the gondola, making sure they were in securely and didn't over balance the flimsy device. "No, that's okay. I think I can still carry you- you're actually really quite light. Besides, that way there will be more room on the gondola."

He had a point. If it was squished with the two of us standing up right on the way up, it would be nearly impossible for both of us to fit standing along with the bags on the ground now.

Then it came time for us to enter the gondola.

Carefully, and maintaining his balance as best he could, Egeus stepped into the wooden transport. It swung sickeningly out from the side of the mountain from the imbalance of weight. I found myself throwing my arms around his neck to keep from falling. In a display of fast thinking, Egeus had quickly thrown his weight the other way, gripping onto either side of the frame to keep balance. Order was soon restored; the bags which were teetering to the edge, threatening to fall, slid back into place, and the whole structure righted itself.

Somehow, some way, we began our descent down, away from the snow, ice and cold. Now that the gondola was stable, Egeus was able to return his arms back to me, and I could release my arms from the vice like grip around his neck. If there was any important lesson to be learned from the journey, it was that heights did not agree with me. To his credit, Egeus kept my head away from the side, a very positive thing considering if I had the chance to look down, I think I really would have finally emptied my stomach.

A question suddenly popped into my head. "How long has it been?"

Egeus looked confused. "Er…what? How long has what been?"

In my sickness, I lacked the ability to be precise. "Since I blacked out."

"Uhm…can't say. After I got you into the tunnel, I fell asleep. When I woke up, you were still out, and it was day time. It's kinda hard to tell what time of day it is up there, to be honest. I thought the suns would be able to tell us, but they were hidden behind all the clouds."

"Ah…so I have you to thank for getting me down there. What was that place anyway?" I thought back to the strange passage way. It must have served some purpose, having its own hatch and all. "The tunnel place?"

Egeus' face lit up. "Oh! I have a really good story to tell you about all that when you get better! When you were out, I did some exploring. I deactivated those weird blockers, for one. Dunno what it did exactly, though. And you know how there were those Lurkers trying to get to the eco barrels? Apparently there were more of those, but I dealt with them," he announced rather proudly, a smile tugging at his lips. His eyes seemed to betray this. "I don't really want to talk about me, though. I'd rather focus on getting you better…"

I gave a bit of a huff. "You would keep all the cool stuff from me." The light headedness was beginning to return, however, and my head was progressively getting more blocked up. "…though you are right about one thing…I really need a break…"

Egeus took this as a sign to cease conversation, and so for a while we drifted downwards in silence. The wind whistled around us, making the gondola rock unsettling. Occasionally the floorboards would creak. My neck was feeling the strain of being snapped back over Egeus' arm. Tentatively, I let it roll to the side, so it rested against his chest. For some reason the whole movement seemed so provocative, despite my whole body being carried by the man. I could actually feel him tense as the connection was made, making feel even more inappropriate. He never said a word, and for comforts sake, I remained as I was.

Continuing downwards, I could feel his eyes gazing down on me. A few time I caught him in the act, in which case he quickly looked away, as if he were simply staring off into the distance. Something was clearly on his mind, and it sorta annoyed me that he wouldn't just come out and say it. That was the problem with Egeus. Too polite to just get out what he wanted to say.

I tried to prompt it out of him. "Something the matter?"

It could have just been the burns, but I swear is dark cheeks flushed ad if he knew I had caught on. "Er…no. Nothing is really wrong, no."

"Did you know that it is really obvious on your face when you're thinking about something?" I asked him, trying to sound as casual as possible in my cold infested voice.

"I don't really look at my face enough to realise, I guess," he admitted ashamedly, casting his eyes downwards to his chest.

At least he was honest. I tried prodding. "Something you want to talk about? Get it off your chest?"

His expression was getting thoroughly more and more awkward and pained. "Well, I guess I do want to say something. If you want to talk about it afterward then that's good too…though are you sure you don't want to wait until you're better?"

"Oh, come on! This sickness hasn't made me deaf, you know. Besides, you can't just say something like that and not tell me, Precursors!" Needless to say, my interest was certainly piqued.

Had he an arm free, I swear he would have itched away at the back of his head till there was nothing left. He looked away, took in a deep breath, and then turned back to my face. His heart, though pounding when I first let my head rest against him, was now racing. "Zorna…" his face screwed up reluctantly. "…it isn't…uh…something that is really easy to say. It's kinda all new, and after such a short time, it seems- well, you're going to think I'm weird."

The suspense was killing me. What kind of revelation was he hiding? Was it something that he found when he was out exploring? Something that had to do with what the Lurker Queen had said, but was afraid to tell me? I turned to desperate measures. "Well, what if I tell you something weird first? Maybe it'll make what you want to say seem less weird," I suggested. It was a gamble, since what I had to say was rather personal, and could very well be unrequited, making me look even stupider than what he was worrying about.

The reluctance melted away from his face, to be replaced by curiosity. The darkness faded from his eyes into an emotion that I couldn't quite pick. "…what is it?"

"Well…" I started, kneading my bottom lip with my front teeth. It seemed ridiculous I was going to tell him, but I supposed I owed it to him. That was part of care, wasn't it? "…I know this sounds crazy. And I'm not really one to get into this kind of touchy feely stuff. It's hard. But…"

It was a simple concept. I just needed to formulate the words and speak them. I made sure to look at him firmly. He was as still as a statue, as if frozen in space. Only the breeze rustling through his hair gave him away.

That feeling was still there. It was now or never.

"You're a good friend, Egeus. My best friend. My only friend, to be honest…"

I quickly looked away to avoid whatever strange look he was probably giving me. It was finally off my chest, and with that, it seemed as if I could finally accept that feeling properly, taking the place the lump had been.

When I looked back to him, there appeared to be a remnant of some emotion still clinging. His smile was strange—his lips were curving upwards, but his eyes had the same darkness about them like before, only now more deep. I was struck with panic. My brain back pedalled. Had I really misinterpreted Egeus' care for me as something more than what it was?

"You're my best friend too, Zorna."


End file.
